51黑料

鈥淚 offer my strongest and unequivocal endorsement to any jurisdiction seeking a correctional health care provider,鈥� reads a glowing statement by Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis, next to her picture.

Last year, amid a series of deaths at the City Justice Center, Davis signed a contract to pay Physician Correctional $720,000 a month for health care services at the jail. The contract, agreed to by a committee that included former jail Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah, followed a similar emergency no-bid contract signed in 2023, after the city fired its previous health care provider.

The new company was touted by Davis as helping the jail make an 鈥涡苍辫谤别肠别诲别苍迟别诲鈥� turnaround. What Davis didn鈥檛 tell reporters is that the contract was the only one like it anywhere in the continental U.S.

That might be because of the less-than-stellar reputation of Physician Correctional鈥檚 parent company in Puerto Rico. Over the past decade, that company has faced more than two dozen lawsuits alleging it failed to provide proper health care to detainees, leading to long-term medical issues and deaths.

Now, the mother of a man who died in the City Justice Center has filed a lawsuit in Missouri, alleging that poor care by medical staff for Physician Correctional led to her son鈥檚 death.

The lawsuit was filed in 51黑料 Circuit Court on Tuesday by Anita Washington, whose son, Samuel L. Hayes, Jr., died June 19 while in a restraint chair in the City Justice Center. According to video that Washington has watched, her son was dragged into the chair by corrections officers and was unresponsive when he was strapped in.

鈥淔or the next 90 minutes, corrections officers walked past Samuel as he lay unmoving,鈥� the lawsuit, filed by the Khazaeli Wyrsch law firm, alleges.

The lawsuit raises questions about whether the city did much research on Physician Correctional before signing the company to a contract in 2023 and extending it a year later. As part of the contract, 51黑料 agreed to spend $250,000 of taxpayer money to cover general liability insurance 鈥� which the city requires the company to have in place.

The company鈥檚 鈥渙fficial business address is a 4,000 square foot waterfront home in Fort Lauderdale,鈥� the lawsuit alleges. 鈥淪omehow, it was granted a no-bid contract with the City of 51黑料 Department of Health in 2023, three weeks after its creation as a business entity. It is now paid just shy of $10,000,000 per year by the Department of Corrections.鈥�

The suit also claims that until recently, the company鈥檚 website 鈥減rovided contact only through a WhatsApp account linked to a cell phone registered to the 鈥楥hief Operating Officer鈥檚鈥� wife.鈥�

51黑料 hired the company after firing its previous health care provider, Yes, Care. It was an offshoot of Corizon, a multi-billion-dollar health care company that itself spun off a subsidiary after facing millions of dollars in liability after various lawsuits.

鈥淭he prior jail health care provider, Corizon, was enormous. It still did a lot of harm and left a lot of bills unpaid,鈥� said one of Washington鈥檚 attorneys, Brendan Roediger, who is also a law professor at 51黑料 University. 鈥淥ur problem with Physicians Correctional USA is not that it is small. It is that it does not appear to be a serious business, and it left our incapacitated client for dead in a restraint chair.鈥�

Physician Correctional was founded in Puerto Rico by two brothers, Raul and Julian Villalobos. Last year, just two weeks before 51黑料 signed its contract with the American arm of the company, the Center for Investigative Journalism, a nonprofit news site, at the history of the company and its years of lawsuits. The report also raised questions about whether Physician Correctional鈥檚 founders used political influence to obtain the Puerto Rico prison contract, which paid it more than $70 million over several years.

That the company has been sued over the deaths of inmates is not unusual. Such lawsuits are unfortunately all-too-common in the United States, where care of jail and prison detainees is often an afterthought. But in light of Hayes鈥� death, his mother鈥檚 lawyers are asking in the lawsuit whether the city investigated the company鈥檚 history before signing a large contract.

鈥淚t took me 30 seconds of Googling to see that this company had huge problems in the only place it had ever previously worked,鈥� said attorney Jack Waldron.

Last month, the prison system in Puerto Rico told Physician Correctional it intended to cancel its contract later this year. The company filed a lawsuit to try to block the move.

The company鈥檚 chief operating officer in the U.S., Jim Martin, declined to comment. 鈥淚t鈥檚 still an open investigation,鈥� he said of Hayes鈥� death.

Washington鈥檚 lawsuit also accuses the city of violating the state鈥檚 Sunshine Law by failing to provide her with investigatory reports of her son鈥檚 death. The allegation puts Mayor Cara Spencer in a tough spot. While Spencer had nothing to do with hiring Physician Correctional, Hayes鈥� death and the aftermath occurred on her watch.

The lawsuit hits 鈥渁t the intersection of two subjects that the current mayor campaigned on: the jail and Sunshine transparency,鈥� Waldron said. 鈥淪am鈥檚 death shows that these problems continue in the new administration, with none of the accountability we were promised.鈥�