JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – On Tuesday, the Jacksonville City Council will start considering the future of the Duval County jail’s healthcare contractor for the first time since the I-TEAM exposed the company’s criminal history.
That company, Armor Health, is now under investigation by the state after it failed to report its past felony convictions, as the law requires. Still, the city council is being asked to appropriate more than $19 million to the contractor in the upcoming budget and to continue the city’s contract.
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The city and JSO signed a five-year contract with Armor last year worth nearly $100 million but since then, the company has become embroiled in controversy with several city councilmembers saying there’s cause for concern when it comes to this proposal to stick with Armor.
Ordinance 2023-512 is a short title for a bill with big consequences.
The bill proposes $19.4 million in funding to continue to pay Armor Health for inmate healthcare in the fiscal year to come.
The family of Dexter Barry said he died in November after Armor failed to give him an essential medication at the jail to keep his body from rejecting his heart transplant. Barry was 54 years old and had been brought in after a misdemeanor arrest.
Just the month before, the company had been criminally convicted in Wisconsin on seven counts of intentionally falsifying health care records and one count of neglecting an inmate, which is a felony.
Armor has operated in the Duval County jail since a contract was first signed in 2017. After the convictions but before Barry’s death, the city and JSO renewed their contract with Armor for another five years at a cost of about $98 million.
In this year’s budget, the funding for the Armor contract has been set aside to be voted on separately because one city council member has a conflict of interest: Council President Ron Salem. He’s served as a consulting pharmacist for a subcontractor of Armor at the Duval County jail.
Removing the Armor funding from the main city budget proposal means Salem can still vote on the budget as a whole.
In response to the proposed funding for Armor in the upcoming year, City Councilman Ken Amaro said, “The bill was just introduced and it will be heavily scrutinized as it moves through the legislative process. The allegations against this health care provider give reason for concern.”
“It is clear based on the reported actions of Armor Correctional Health Services, Inc. employees, that there are substantive and procedural concerns worthy of consideration before voting on the pending legislation,” City Councilmember Tyrona Clark-Murray said.
Armor is appealing its criminal convictions in Wisconsin. It also denies Barry died because he didn’t receive the medication for his heart transplant in jail and said it ordered his medication, but it did not arrive by the time he was released from jail after just a few days.
News4JAX also reached out to the mayor’s office and JSO to get their stances on continuing the contract with Armor, but they did not immediately respond.