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| Alabama Inmates' Medical Needs More Than Private Prison Expected |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 06/27/2003 |
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Alabama might have to pay more to house 309 women inmates at a Louisiana private prison because of higher-than-expected medical costs, owners of the prison said. 'The medical issue is more than we anticipated,' Patrick LeBlanc, owner of LCS Corrections Services, told The Birmingham News for a June 21 story. Alabama pays LCS $22.85 per inmate per day to house women transferred from the crowded Tutwiler Prison in Wetumpka to the private prison in Basile, La. That rate was approved earlier this month by the Legislature's Contract Review Committee and is less than the initial $24 daily rate agreed upon in April when Alabama began sending women to the LCS lockup. Since then, LCS officials have realized Alabama's inmates require more medical attention than Louisiana prisoners housed at Basile, LeBlanc said. About 20 to 25 of every 150 Louisiana inmates require prescription medication, he said. The Alabama prisoners' prescription needs are more than double that. Alabama prisons spokesman Brian Corbett said the state and LCS have not yet agreed upon a rate adjustment or any other compromise. He said the Corrections Department chose which prisoners were sent out of state based on low security risk, not medical problems. Corrections Commissioner Donal Campbell this week asked LCS for proposals on the cost of enhanced medical care. 'He did ask them to put together something from a cost-analysis standpoint to determine, if things weren't being met or handled correctly, what would it take to make sure they were,' Corbett said. Inmate Linda Faye Knight was sent to Basile on June 12. She's still waiting for blood-pressure medicine she's taken for the last 15 years, said her sister, Victoria White of Birmingham. 'She saw a nurse, but the nurse told her the medicine was not there,' White said. Her 46-year-old sister is up for parole July 8 on a manslaughter conviction. |
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