NCCH Certifies Eight Vermont Prisons

SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — The National Commission of Correctional Health Care recently evaluated and accredited eight of the nine facilities in Vermont’s prison system.

The evaluation followed concerns about prison health care during the state’s transition in 2004 from Correctional Medical Services to Prison Health Services of Brentwood, Tenn., under the administration of Gov. James Douglas.

The commission reviewed the prison system to evaluate the changes made by the Douglas administration and the services provided by PHS. Southern State Correctional Facility, the state’s new 350-bed prison, was not evaluated since it had not yet been open for three years.

With the new health care provider, inmates are guaranteed 24-hour access to a nurse, and community physicians are under contract to provide services to inmates for a specific amount of time each week, depending on the size of the prison. Larger facilities tend to get 20 hours of physician time per week, while the smaller prisons get eight hours per week.

Corrections officials say the transition to PHS was the result of a cooperative effort among corrections staff, caseworkers and medical staff. Officials credit the health commission’s positive evaluation with raising confidence in prison health care.

Critics of the evaluation, including an official from the Vermont Protection and Advocacy Agency, say that the accreditation is not a guarantee of improved medical services, but rather “an acknowledgement of the bare minimum of services.”

Health care for inmates costs the state approximately $479 per prisoner per month. The state pays PHS $9.5 million a year, in addition to an average health care premium of $800,000 a month.

The state also holds a contract with Corrections Corp. of America to provide health care to Vermont inmates serving their sentences in Kentucky.