Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters and Mayor Donna Deegan held a news conference on Tuesday evening to announce the end of a $98 million contract with Armor Correctional Health Services, which administers healthcare to inmates at the Duval County jail.
Waters said the jail will make the switch to NaphCare, another private medical provider. The new contract is for five years and $110 million, Waters said.
The announcement comes weeks after reporting from News4JAX and nonprofit news outlet The Tributary found that the company is under state investigation for allegedly failing to report past criminal convictions against the company, which is required by Federal law.
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News4JAX has reported extensively on the death of Dexter Barry, 54, who died after spending a few days in jail in November. He was charged with verbally threatening his neighbor.
Barry had a heart transplant that required daily medication to keep his body from rejecting it, but records show he never got his medicine at the jail. Barry died a few days after being released.
Records also reveal jailers knew about the prescription, which was required to keep his body from rejecting his heart transplant.
Attorney Andrew Bonderud, who represents Barry’s family, said he waited five months for the public records he requested from JSO that prove Barry never got his medication in jail. He said the records were released to him the morning after the I-TEAM’s initial story on Barry was published.
Armor first started providing healthcare at the Duval County jail in 2017. The Tributary reported that the jail death rate tripled after it privatized medical care with Armor.