State Rep. Chris England (D-Tuscaloosa) said at a Contract Review Committee meeting on Thursday that he was going to delay Alabama Department of Corrections contracts until he got answers about a recent healthcare contract selection.
The ADOC terminated a $1 billion health care contract with YesCare in April.
The contract between ADOC and YesCare totals $1.064 billion from April 2023 to September 2027 for comprehensive healthcare for all inmates in ADOC's physical custody and control.
ADOC deputy commissioner Jeffery Williams said during a Joint Prison Oversight Committee meeting in April that ADOC recently terminated its contract with YesCare and entered into an emergency contract with Birmingham-based NaphCare. According to WBRC, YesCare paid hundreds of employees late in April. The contract was criticized by multiple legislators in 2023 due to the company's financial and legal troubles in multiple other states.
"I was in a meeting in this very room a few weeks ago. In that meeting a Department of Corrections of employee represented that, and this has nothing to do with this, but I'm just going to tell you that I'm going to hold this contract and I'm going to hold every Department of Corrections contract for the foreseeable future because whatever procurement process y'all do, it's got to be just fundamentally flawed," England said during the meeting. "We were here just a couple of weeks ago, and it was a Prison Oversight Committee meeting. In that meeting, an employee from the Department of Corrections represented that the YesCare contract that was currently in effect was canceled and that a new contractor NaphCare was hired. After the meeting, we find out that none of that had actually occurred. In the meeting, he had represented something that had not happened. Meanwhile, we find out that the new contract was for half a billion dollars for two years."
England continued, "It should be a lot more difficult to spend a half a billion dollars than that especially considering that somebody was here that flat out represented the entire arrangement to the point where he said it happened in a meeting over the weekend."
"What I need to know is who vetted that contractor? NaphCare as a company didn't even bid on the contract that YesCare was given a couple of years ago. Didn't even bid on it. If you do any sort of research about NaphCare, NaphCare is already having issues providing care in prisons in places like Washington, Ohio, New York," England said.
England also said he wanted answers about a contract between LEO Technologies, a software company, and ADOC. According to the Finance Department, ADOC has paid LEO Technologies approximately $3.9 million over the last two fiscal years.
"It's just gotten to the point where everything involving the Department of Corrections is just flat out out of control or it's just not working well," England said. "That contract never came through contract review. It's just one of things, it seems like something is not right. That's a lot of money for it not to be bid, for it not to come before the contract review committee. Until I get answers to those questions, I'm going to hold every Department of Corrections contract until the end of the year if I have to."
Lawmakers on the Contract Review Committee can delay contracts that come before their committee for up to 45 days. ADOC commissioner John Hamm retired last week.
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