County jails house 18x more inmates a year than state and federal prisons.

At the 2019 MACo Winter Conference session, “Inmate Healthcare: Sorting Fact from Fiction,”  attendees learned about the complex web of inmate healthcare and how improving the inmate health care system can decrease short- and long-term costs, reduce recidivism, and improve public safety.

Tom Weber, Esquire, Chief Executive Officer for PrimeCare Medical, Inc, provided a breakdown of the top 10 myths and realities of providing inmate health care.

Lindsey Holman, Associate Legislative Director of Justice and Public Safety, NACo presented on the work of the NACo- National Sheriff’s Association Joint Task Force on Pre-Trail Detainee Health Care and Recidivism.

In particular, she focused on federal advocacy to improve health care access and remove the federal inmate Medicaid exclusion for county jail pretrial detainees.

The session was moderated by Delegate Charles Sydnor and held on Thursday, December 5, 2019.

The 2019 MACo Winter Conference, “Building for the Future,” was held on December 4-6, 2019, at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Hotel in Cambridge, Maryland.