News

by Naseem Sowti Miller

On a chilly March morning, Raphael, a local man in his 50s, sat in a room at the Baystate Brightwood Health Center and offered an unconventional summary of his well being: Despite having HIV and diabetes, he is the happiest and healthiest he has been in several years.

by Naseem Sowti Miller

by Naseem S. Miller

At the stroke of midnight on Jan. 2, the Marion County Jail and local health care providers together will launch a new and unique system to care for the medical needs of inmates. Ocala Community Care, Inc., an organization created by Sheriff Ed Dean, will collaborate with local health care providers to extend inmate health care beyond the jail's steel bars, and eventually incorporate it into the community's health care system.

by Naseem S. Miller

What is Ocala Community Care? It's a new health-care system for Marion County Jail inmates. The nonprofit organization was formed as a result of collaboration between local health care providers, such as Munroe Regional Medical Center, The Centers and the county Health Department.

Marion County Sheriff Ed Dean sat down with the Star-Banner last month to talk about the new health care model coming to the Marion County Jail. Dean began bringing community leaders together in July in an effort to create a community-based model. By November, the nonprofit Ocala Community Care, Inc. was established to take over jail's medical operations from the private company Prison Health Services.

by Naseem S. Miller

Community-Oriented Correctional Health Services (COCHS) is a nonprofit organization with headquarters in Oakland, Calif., established to help communities around the country connect health care provided in local correctional centers with health care provided in the community. This is a comparison of the model of traditional inmate health care and the COCHS model.

An editorial in the Ocala Star Banner describes Ocala Community Care, a new community-based nonprofit health care provider to replace Prison Health Services to treat Marion County jail inmates beginning in January 2008.

An Ocala Star Banner editorial describes Marion County Sheriff Ed Dean’s proposal to create a community-based health care system for the jail, using local health providers. Whether Dean can build necessary support is unknown and won’t be easy, but "we have to applaud his vision and willingness … to take the lead on an issue that is important to thousands of households across Marion County."

by Naseem Sowti

Ocala Florida Sheriff Ed Dean is ending a contract with Prison Health Services and has contacted a group of local health care leaders to find out if they would be willing to attend a meeting to discuss the creation of a new model for health care delivery to inmates in Marion County.