A new new agency will be providing inmate health services at the Washington County Jail.

The Washington County Board of Supervisors approved the contract with Advanced Correctional Healthcare, Inc., at their meeting Tuesday. Shawn Ellingson with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office explained the need, “Since I’ve been out there, and I don’t know how long it’s been, we’ve kind of always put it on our jailers to be able to triage these inmates to see what’s serious and what’s not, set up medical appointments, see whether they need to go to the ER, kind of manage all their medications. And it’s a lot to ask for that, there’s a liability issue there. Not only that, a lot of our jail’s staff is taken out of the facility to transport them to medical clinic, to the ER, and over for mental health treatment.”

This had been discussed at budget time. The contract is for an estimated $69,901 but will be adjusted quarterly depending on the inmate population. Ellingson added, currently when an inmate comes to the jail and medication is prescribed it has to be thrown out once the inmate leaves, but the new agency uses blister packs, which will allow unused medication to be returned because it is still untouched.