The D.C. Council will vote Tuesday on whether to award a $66 million contract for medical care at the city jail to a for-profit company that has been criticized for providing poor services at other facilities — setting lawmakers up for their first major clash with Mayor Muriel Bowser.
A coalition of 86 community groups have asked the council not to approve the contract for Corizon Health Inc., bringing jail advocates and the union that represents correctional officers together on an issue for likely the first time, according to union Chairman John Rosser.
Mr. Rosser was among those engaged in last-minute lobbying against the contract Monday, passing out fliers at the John A. Wilson Building detailing the union’s issues with Corizon and threatening lawsuits against council members who support the contract if it’s passed and if any subsequent harm comes to corrections officers.
The $66 million contract would put Corizon in charge of providing medical, mental health, pharmacy and dental services for at least three years to the roughly 2,200 inmates in the District’s Department of Corrections. The District’s Office of Contracting and Procurement recommended awarding the contract to Corizon at a cost of 7 percent, or $4.4 million, more than the bid received from Unity Health Care, which has overseen health care at the jail since 2006.
Former Mayor Vincent C. Gray last year proposed but later withdrew the contract after concerns were raised about the quality of Corizon’s care of inmates at other jail facilities where it holds contracts.
Council member Vincent Orange, at-large Democrat, placed the matter on the council’s agenda at the request of Ms. Bowser last week.
The mayor hopes the contract award will be approved following an 18-month procurement process, said spokesman Mike Czin.
“If companies who want to do business with the District see it upended at the last minute, I think it could have a chilling effect,” Mr. Czin said.
Contract supporters who rallied outside the John A. Wilson Building last week noted that the contract with Corizon, a Tennessee-based company that provides health care services to more than 345,000 inmates at 531 facilities across the country, would include a partnership with MBI Health Services LLC, a local Certified Business Enterprise (CBE) company.
“We have committed to deliver more than $30 million in CBE revenue to MBI for critical nurse staffing and behavioral health services they will provide the [Department of Corrections],” said spokeswoman Michelle Ouellette.
The ACLU of the Nation’s Capital and inmate advocates protested the award, pointing to a long list of lawsuits filed against Corizon, as well as some of their personal experiences representing inmates at other facilities who received poor treatment from Corizon.
Corizon executives and officials have lobbied aggressively for the contract, meeting with lawmakers and launching public relations campaigns to gain public support.
Local officials have questioned the contract award citing the drop in lawsuits upheld against the jail in the time since Unity, a D.C.-based nonprofit, took over health care at the facility as well as the successful model of community care that is extended to inmates once they are released.
The contract award to Corizon has so rankled council member David Grosso, at-large independent, that he plans to break from his prior history of abstaining from votes on contracting matters to vote against it.
“Even if the Council was not required to vote on contracts, I would still work diligently to prevent this company from operating in the D.C. Jail given their objectionable track record,” Mr. Grosso said. “Awarding this contract would be an absolute failure of government to protect the health and well-being of District of Columbia residents who are in jail.”
