Medical costs concerning Grant County Jail

Inmate health care part of county budget

GRANT COUNTY — In the last year, Captain Pete McMahon has had to send two inmates in for emergency jaw surgery after fistfights at the Grant County Jail.

McMahon is in charge of the jail budget for the Grant County Sheriff's Office and said the two inmates' jaws were broken in the separate fights. The two had been on methamphetamine, which McMahon said leeches all calcium out of the body.

"Unfortunately," McMahon said, " Most people we get into jail don't have insurance coverage."

The bill for those two surgeries wasn't sent to the inmates or their insurance company, but rather was paid for through the Grant County Jail's budget. Washington law requires that the jail pay for every type of medical care required of inmates in jail custody. With an already tight budget to deal with, McMahon said those expenses can add up.

Grant County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy John Turley said that deputies have learned through trial and error, that if a person needs to be arrested, that person is not arrested until after they have been released from the hospital.

"It they're under our care," Turley said, "we have to pay for it."

That care can include all kinds of medical needs for patients who have been released from the hospital and still need to pay further doctor visits after being booked into the jail.

"Now that we have restricted budgets because of a lack of funds," Turley said,"We have to take that into consideration when we arrest somebody."

Turley said that with the exception of broken windows and ripped mattresses by inmates, jail expenses are paid for by taxpayer dollars.

"The entire cost is on the shoulders of the residents of Grant County," Turley said.

McMahon said agencies like the Department of Social and Health Services stop benefits to inmates after that person has spent 30 days in jail.

Once a person is booked, they are the jail's responsibility. McMahon said the jail requires arresting agencies to get clearance from an emergency room if a person complains of pain, before that person is booked.

Another problem, McMahon said, is the mental health of inmates. McMahon said the jail sometimes holds mentally ill patients for months before they are taken to Eastern State Hospital or another facility for an evaluation. During those months, Grant County pays for their medications.

"For their safety and everybody else's safety," McMahon said, "you're forced to pay for it. It's better than the alternative."

The jail has been budgeted $170,000 for professional services in 2005, which includes payment for professionals such as nurses and doctors. McMahon saw a rise in that budget of $10,000 from $160,000 in 2004, but he acknowledged that professional services went over budget last year by more than $12,000. The jail does have a doctor and nurses on sick call five days out of the week. Another $1,000 is budgeted for inmates on work release.

In addition to money already budgeted the jail also has to pay for prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs and other medical supplies. Historically, McMahon said the jail really doesn't know how much it has to spend in terms of medical supplies and medications in a given year.

In 2004, McMahon said the jail spent $36,721 on prescription medications and another $21,930 on clinical and medical supplies such as aspirin and bandages.

Not all the money for medicine and other clinical and medical supplies has been spent yet this year, but McMahon said the cost will reach as high as it did in 2004. Those costs continue to rise, and McMahon said the issue is never going to go away.

"It goes up every year," McMahon said of medicine, "and it will continue to go up."

Jail populations in Grant County over the last several years have hovered around 200 inmates, and McMahon said all it would take is one or two expensive medical procedures to wipe out the jail's budget for the year.

If health care costs continue to rise, he said the jail may have to look at other areas in their budget to make up the difference. In the past the jail has had to cut out training and uniforms to pay for medical care of inmates.

"If we go over," McMahon said, "We have to make it up some other way."

Grant County isn't the only jail having these problems, McMahon said. He said jails throughout the states are feeling a similar pinch and he said the situation isn't likely to change in the near future.

"All the jails are suffering from the same budget limitations," McMahon said.