COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – The Branch County Board of Commissioners voted Thursday to bring forward to next week’s meeting a proposal for inmate medical services at the county jail.
Jail Administrator Fred Blankenship told commissioners that the jail has been contracting with a local doctor for physician services and they staff a nurse 40 hours a week, but he says inmate medical services have become a huge liability for the county.
Advanced Correctional Healthcare has been talked to over the last few years to take over the service. They were the only company to submit a Request for Proposal at a cost of over $232,000.
Blankenship says medical costs over the last several years with the county assuming all of the liability was in the range of $190,000.
Meanwhile, the commissioners gave County Administrator Bud Norman permission to seek Requests for Proposals for work on the north parking lot at the county jail. Work on the roof over the maximum security part of the jail will cost $32,000 and is expected to start in the spring.
