Despite concerns from nurses stationed at the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, the Metro Council on Tuesday authorized Mayor Kip Holden to hand over management of medical care for the parish prison’s inmate population to ConnectHealth, a private health care company based in Georgia.
The council debated the matter for nearly an hour, finally voting 8-2 to approve a one-year roughly $5.3 million contract that includes an option to extend the agreement beyond that, if both sides agree.
Councilwoman Tara Wicker abstained from voting, while council members Chauna Banks-Daniels and Lamont Cole voted against authorizing the contract.
Councilman Buddy Amoroso was not present.
Nurses stationed at the jail have expressed concern that they would lose their jobs and generous benefits if ConnectHealth takes over. The company insists that’s not necessarily so as comparable salaries have been offered to the prison’s medical employees.
Chief Administrative Officer William Daniel says the city-parish cannot afford to continuing managing medical services at the parish prison. Costs have risen at least 57% since 2010, he says. The city-parish also faces the need to quickly contract with more doctors at the beginning of next year to properly staff medical services at the parish prison.
“This is not the type of operation that a city-parish is good at running. We’re not in the medical business,” he told the council on Tuesday.
Also at the meeting, the council approved settling a federal class action lawsuit filed by those who protested the July police shooting of 37-year-old Alton Sterling.
The cost of the $100,000 settlement will be divided among the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office, the city-parish, Louisiana State Police and East Baton Rouge District Attorney’s Office.
Each entity is responsible for an amount that does not exceed $25,000.
Two proposals were introduced last night: One a request to increase flood recovery spending from $47 million to at least $65 million; the other, a proposal to relax the city-parish’s open-container law.
