Jails adhere to high health care standards

SPANISH FORK — Utah County Jail inmate Marcos Flores got his tooth filled recently, but something went wrong and now it's infected. Tuesday afternoon he sat handcuffed to a bench in the medical unit, waiting to see the dentist.

"It's good," the inmate said of health services in jail. "But you gotta wait another week if they don't do it right."

Each day, nurses visit the jail's housing pods, pushing a medicine cart like vendors at a baseball game, handing out pills approved by the jail's doctors and psychiatrists.

On an average day, 30 percent of inmates are receiving treatment or counseling for mental health issues or depression. Others, like Flores, are getting cavities filled or receiving medicine for high blood pressure or a lingering cough.

"I think the public's opinion is that we provide the low minimum health care, which isn't true," said Dale Bench, health services director at the Utah County Jail. "People feel that when they come to jail, what they did (will) determine how they are treated. That's not the way it works."

Inmates occasionally complain about treatment, but medical privacy rules prevent Bench from responding.

In 4th District Court on May 12, defense attorney Greg Skordas told a judge that his client, David Ragsdale, was losing weight because he wasn't getting his medicines in jail. Ragsdale is charged with aggravated murder, accused of gunning down his wife, Kristy, in an LDS parking lot in Lehi in January.

Because of HIPAA — or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act — Bench can't comment about Ragsdale's situation. Utah County Sheriff's Lt. Dennis Harris could only say that Ragsdale was receiving the appropriate care.

The medical facilities

The Spanish Fork-based jail has been accredited since 1994 by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, which requires performance one step above state and federal correctional requirements.

"We just don't do the bare minimum," said Bench, who is also an RN and used to work in the emergency room at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center.

Accreditation means jail officials treat inmates quicker, provide mental health care, send released inmates home with the remaining carefully prescribed medicines, schedule follow-up mental health appointments and prepare for inspections every two years.