In 2016, the state’s Department of Corrections collected just over $250,000 in medical copays. That same year, the agency spent about $84.4 million on health care — up almost 35 percent from FY 2011.
Office of Juvenile Affairs records show in less than five years, staff have used pepper spray in 52 incidents on 62 children. The agency is considering expediting its plan to get rid of it.
Though the Sheriff’s Office is facing almost a dozen lawsuits related to deaths and injuries, some mental health advocates say it has come a long way.
The 10 cases reviewed by The Frontier add up to one in three inmate deaths in the last decade that experts and medical records state might have been prevented with better care.
