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Abstract: 

This article reviews “The Jail Health-Care Crisis: Criminal-Justice Failures Left a Population at Risk; Privatization Was Supposed to Help” by Steve Coll, published in The New Yorker. Coll was troubled by what he found in examining lawsuits filed against private correctional health care companies. He is dean of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and a staff writer for the New Yorker. He and his postgraduate researchers reviewed complaints, depositions, and affidavits, focusing on Corizon Health and Wellpath, two of the largest nationwide providers. Corizon delivers health care to about 180,000 inmates daily and Wellpath (formerly Correct Care Solutions) to about 250,000. In just the last five years, approximately 1,500 lawsuits have been filed against them (two-thirds against Corizon) for offenses including alleged neglect, malpractice, and wrongful injury or death. Most lawsuits were filed pro se; only about a quarter of the petitioners were assisted by counsel while virtually all of the defendants were represented by attorneys. Coll also notes that the outcome of more than a hundred of these lawsuits could not be determined because of confidential settlement agreements.

Keywords: Jail Health Care; Privatization

Affiliations:  1: Pace University Law School.