A snafu with presentation binders caused the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors to hold off deciding whether to extend the county Sheriff’s Office contract with Corizon Correctional Health on Aug. 25.
The supervisors did get the binders dedicated to the Corizon Health hearing, however not everybody read them. Before continuing debate on the matter, a particularly frustrated 2nd District Supervisor Janet Wolf made the suggestion that the vote be put on hold until their next meeting in Santa Maria on Sept. 8.
“This has actually been a nightmare,” Wolf said. “Everyone received the binder, but apparently some supervisors didn’t look at it or didn’t see it.”
Tennessee-based Corizon is contracted to provide medical services to county jail inmates and those on probation. The contract technically expired on June 30 and the company is operating on a 120-day extension with the county that sunsets on Oct. 31.
In the past couple of months, county supervisors and inmate civil rights advocates raised questions about the quality of service provided by Corizon.
Suzanne Riordan of Families Act! in Santa Barbara told the Sun that she believes Corizon provides substandard care and skimps on treatment to save money. Corizon CEO Dr. Woodrow Myers said that wasn’t true and defended his company in an editorial printed by the Sun on July 28.
The binders in question contained jail statistics and spreadsheets on Corizon’s service that included grievances by inmates. Before supervisors decided to continue the hearing, Undersheriff Barney Melekian appeared before the board to ask for an extension so the Sheriff’s Office can review best standards and practices, and eventually determine if they want to continue with Corizon.
Riordan and several other citizens waited for hours to speak about Corizon but were instead told that they had to wait until Sept. 8.
Even though supervisors had the option to vote on Corizon’s contract at the Aug. 25 meeting, 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino thought it would not be in the “spirit of the Brown Act” to vote on something the public didn’t get a chance to review. The vote to postpone the Corizon vote was unanimous.
Melekian took the blame on behalf of the Sheriff’s Office, saying that it was ultimately his job to distribute the binders properly. Fourth District Supervisor Peter Adam said that he simply didn’t see the binder laying among the multitude of other binders in his office.
“We have 100 of these binders in my office, and I missed them,” Adam said. “I straight up missed them.”
This article appears in Sep 3-10, 2015.