St. Louis County set to drop troubled jail contractor

DULUTH — The St. Louis County Board is set to end its decadelong partnership with MEnD Correctional Care.

Commissioners will vote Tuesday morning at Rice Lake Town Hall on shifting the $12.6 million jail health care contract to St. Luke's hospital. If the contract with St. Luke's is approved, it would start Nov. 1and run through 2028. The six-year deal, available after that for renewal in two-year increments, starts at $1.7 million the first year.

Several Minnesota counties have recently severed ties with MEnD. In January, the state Board of Medical Practice suspended its owner Dr. Todd Leonard's license when it found that lapses in care led to to the death of inmate Hardel Sherrell. He was also sued by the family of James Lynas, a Sherburne County inmate who died by suicide in 2017. In that case, the county and MEnD agreed to pay the Lynas family $2.3 million.

Anoka, Morrison and Sherburne counties have all cut ties with MEnD.

MEnD currently offers medical services 15 hours a day on weekdays and four hours a day on weekends and holidays, as well as mental health services 16 hours a week, at the St. Louis County Jail. St. Luke's plan builds to 24 hours of service seven days a week and 40 hours a week of mental health care by the start of 2024.

Jail administrators solicited proposals from providers earlier this year and received four, then narrowed the selection to three for interviews. MEnD was a finalist, according to St. Louis County Sheriff Ross Litman.

St. Luke's Hospital was the unanimous pick within the seven-member panel. Litman said it could bring a continuum of care to people who pass through the jail.

"This is a local provider and these are patients [who] are going to be known potentially to St. Luke's before coming into our facility and once they're released," he said.

The Duluth NAACP, which has been pushing for a move away from MEnD for months, said it applauded St. Luke's for stepping up to provide a community service other local organizations shied away from.

"The path toward health care equity has been slow and will continue to be slow," the NAACP said in a news release. "Despite this victory, the profit-driven structures of both mass incarceration and our health care system remain strong."