DUBLIN — Santa Rita Jail’s embattled well being care supplier is predicted to pay not less than $2.5 million for its position within the 2021 demise of Maurice Monk, an inmate who laid immobile in his cell for days earlier than anybody checked him for a pulse.
Wellpath’s settlement — introduced Thursday by the attorneys for Monk’s youngsters — follows a separate $7 million payout by Alameda County practically two 12 months in the past, which additionally known as for a sequence of reforms over how workers checks on inmates on the jail. The newest settlement consists of about $2.3 million for Monk’s 22-year-old daughter, together with $250,000 for his 18-year-old son.
On Thursday, an legal professional for Monk’s household stated the accord got here after a protracted struggle with the medical supplier, which not too long ago emerged from chapter after going through round 1,500 lawsuits over its efficiency at jails throughout the nation. Whereas Alameda County moved extra shortly to settle, Wellpath engaged in “a corporate shell game,” stated the legal professional, Adante Pointer.
“Wellpath took a different path, and I think that’s indicative of the way they do business,” Pointer stated. “They buried their head in the sand and forced the family to fight. That says a lot about the culture of Wellpath, and that certainly trickles down to the people who are delivering the care — or not delivering the care — as expected.”
“For his children, they’ll never be able to hug their dad, or text or call hm, or watch a movie with him,” Pointer added. “But they now have a much more secure financial base to go forward with their lives and achieve the goals they had shared with their dad while he was here.”
Wellpath representatives didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark in regards to the settlement.
The deal comes as Wellpath seeks to resume its five-year, $250 million contract to supply well being care on the jail, which has been a frequent goal of lawsuits alleging workers negligence and abuse. The jail presently operates below a federal consent decree — which started after the demise of one other inmate — after dozens of inmates have died on the jail during the last decade.
Quite a few neighborhood teams have pleaded with the Alameda Board of Supervisors to half methods with the medical supplier. A number of audits — together with one introduced to the supervisors final month — discovered the corporate has repeatedly fallen wanting the 90-95% compliance charge wanted for a passable score.
Usually, the corporate’s workers doesn’t full documentation of affected person care, or correctly handle inmates’ continual situations, the audits have discovered. There additionally exists an “urgent need” for retraining workers on a bunch of points, together with the way to restrain inmates.
“It’s very well documented by way of our lawsuit, as well as the audit that was recently released, that Wellpath is underperforming, undeserving yet overcharging the taxpayers of Alameda County for substandard medical service,” Pointer stated.
It additionally comes as 11 individuals — 9 present or former Alameda County sheriff’s deputies, one Wellpath clinician and an Alameda County Behavioral Well being physician — face felony expenses in Monk’s demise.
Monk was pronounced useless on Nov. 15, 2021, after his physique laid face-down in his cell for days as a brown ooze seeped from beneath him. Safety and deputy body-worn digicam footage confirmed jailers repeatedly dropping tablets and dinner plates into Monk’s cell whereas he laid immobile, with out bothering to verify if he was OK. At one level, one other inmate who was serving to deputies distribute meals allegedly requested, “Are we just waiting for him to kick the bucket?”
Monk seemingly died lengthy earlier than deputies checked for his pulse, in response to the lawsuit. After they lastly dragged Monk’s stiff physique out of the cell, the lettering on his jail garb was printed on the stained mattress, the lawsuit claimed.
On the time, Monk had been going through a misdemeanor cost of threatening a bus driver who requested him to put on a masks on a bus through the COVID-19 pandemic. He had been held on $2,500 bail.
The settlement highlights the necessity for Alameda County’s leaders to take medical care on the jail — and the contractor offering that service — extra significantly, Pointer stated.
“When they’re exposed for not doing their work, the county ends up with blood on its hands and money out of its pocket, because they have not supervised this contractor close enough,” Pointer stated.
