Jail medical contract and medications drive correctional budget increase

County staff said the jail budget increased roughly $400,000 from the prior year, with higher wages and a jump in the "other professional services" line tied to the jail medical contract. "The big 1 that jumped out for me was the other professional services, and this is the, the jail medical contract," staff said.

An agency official named Southern Health Partners as the contract company and said the vendor provides prescribers and coordinates pharmacy fulfillment for inmate medications. Supervisors asked whether some of the increased costs were driven by a higher number of inmates on medications and by costly drugs for conditions such as cancer; staff and the agency official said both increased medication volume and high-cost prescriptions explain much of the growth, and that collection from inmates has been limited.