Nassau Jail Health Provider Settles Lawsuit, Pays $350,000 and Can't Work in New York for Three Years

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a settlement with Armor Correctional Health Services, the healthcare provider for the Nassau County jail, in which Armor will pay $350,000 and will be barred from working in New York for years.

Schneiderman had filed a lawsuit against Armor in July, which alleged that the Florida-based company either failed to perform or egregiously underperformed many of its contractual obligations, placing inmates’ health in jeopardy. Many inmates have died since Armor took over the jail's health services, with six dying this year alone.

Under the terms of the settlement, Armor will pay $350,000 and has agreed that it will not bid or enter into any contract to provide prison health services in New York for three years. The majority of the money will go to Nassau County.

“For-profit jail providers must ensure that appropriate medical care is provided in jails, where many inmates suffer from complex medical needs," Schneiderman said. "When these companies fail to uphold their contractual obligations, they not only defraud taxpayers, the health of inmates, and, by extension, the health of the general population, is jeopardized. I am pleased that our lawsuit pre-emptively forced changes to the monitoring of Armor’s contract, while ultimately ensuring that the company would not renew its contract with Nassau County. This settlement agreement sends a clear message that companies who fail to provide the required health services to inmates won’t be tolerated in New York State.”

The Attorney General’s lawsuit sought the appointment of an independent monitor to ensure Armor’s compliance with its contractual obligations at the Nassau County Correctional Center for the duration of its contract, and for Armor to be barred from bidding on new contracts in New York State. These goals have now been achieved. Following the filing of this lawsuit, Nassau County selected an independent monitor to oversee Armor’s compliance with its contract. In August, in the wake of the Attorney General’s lawsuit, Armor, whose contract is slated to end in the coming months, announced that it would not bid again for the Nassau County contract.

The lawsuit alleged that Armor failed to uphold its contractual obligations, including not providing timely reporting of key statistics on its provision of health care. Since the filing of the lawsuit, Armor has been submitting to monthly statistics on provision of health care services to the county, and Nassau has imposed penalties where Armor has missed established benchmarks. Nassau County also began withholding payments to Armor until the company could prove that it would make its performance standards.

The settlement agreement confirms that Armor cannot bid on any contracts to provide jail health services in New York for three years. The agreement further provides that Armor will pay $350,000 to the Office of the Attorney General, which will retain $100,000 of that payment as penalties, and will transfer the remaining $250,000 to Nassau County as reimbursement related to Armor’s performance of certain contractual obligations.

Photo: Patch File Photo.