NEWPORT, Vt. (AP) - The company that was providing health care to Vermont inmates when a Black inmate died in November of what the interim head of the state Corrections Department said was an undiagnosed tumor in his airway said it stands by its “record of service” and “quality of care” in Vermont.
The Virginia-based Centurion said Monday that it could not provide details on the incident due to privacy laws but said it reported it and has “participated in investigations conducted by the Board of Nursing and the Department of Corrections, which resulted in no disciplinary action being recommended or taken.”
A recent report from the Vermont defender general’s office said Newport prison staff ignored 60-year-old Kenneth Johnson’s pleas that he could not breathe and threatened him instead of providing lifesaving care.
Human Services Secretary Mike Smith told WCAX-TV on Friday that he didn’t think the state did everything it could have in this case. “And since this prisoner was African-American, then we even have to ask the hard question and look ourselves in the mirror and say, would we have handled this prisoner differently If he was white?” he said.
Interim Corrections Commissioner James Baker said this month that the department was conducting a review and had asked the Human Services secretary and a law firm to look at how Johnson died. He also said Kansas-based VitalCore Health Strategies is now providing health care services. Its bid was the lowest of three bidders, including Centurion. Centurion said the new provider has chosen to hire many of its former leadership and team.
“During the five years that we served the Vermont Department of Corrections, our performance exceeded industry standards,” Centurion said.
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