Lawmakers grill Corrections over state's largest proposed contract

(The Center Square) - Arkansas lawmakers grilled the Department of Corrections Department on Monday over a two-year inmate health care contract that could cost the state $235 million.

The contract with Wellpath amounts to $7,500 per inmate annually, according to information presented to state lawmakers at the Arkansas Legislative Council Review Subcommittee.

The 10-year contract locks in the annual rate and can be canceled after the second year, corrections officials told the subcommittee. The estimated cost of the entire contract is $1.6 billion, according to state documents . The price could increase.

"The price will grow if we increase our population size but the rate at which they will charge us for that increased population stays the same," said Lindsay Wallace, Department of Corrections secretary.

The contract is 100% funded by the state.

"This is by far the largest ask of this Legislature in the history of Arkansas," said Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Spring.

The money for the contract is not in the department's budget, Wallace told Hester. The department's allocation for fiscal year 2025 is around $99 million. The difference is between $35 and $36 million, said Chad Brown, DOC's chief financial officer.

"I don't think there is any danger of this contract increasing because the Board of Corrections refuses to add beds," Hester said. "What we are being asked to do is pay more for prisoners--our rapists, our pedophiles, our murders--more health care than you are for your officer's health care, than you are for your health care. I guess we are all understanding that that's the commitment we are making as a state, that the worst among us deserve the best health care.

Adding additional prison beds is a sore spot between the Board of Corrections, state lawmakers and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Last November, Sanders and former Secretary of Corrections Joe Profiri held a news conference saying the Board should add 500 new beds as Profiri requested. The Board said the request was not properly vetted, and Profiri was fired . The Board hired its own attorney and sued the state over a law that gives the governor the authority over the Department of Corrections secretary and not the board.

The subcommittee did not greenlight the contract but it will go before the full legislative council on Friday.