| Organization: | Office of the State Auditor |
|---|---|
| Date published: | April 18, 2024 |
Executive Summary
In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a performance audit of the Essex County Sheriff’s Department (ECSD) for the period July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2021.
The purpose of our audit was to determine the following:
- whether ECSD complied with and implemented the requirements of Section 932.17(2) of Title 103 of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations (CMR) and ECSD’s “Policy 103 ECSD 222.00 Serious Illness, Injury or Death” regarding the deaths of inmates in its custody;1
- whether ECSD held quarterly meetings with its contracted healthcare provider and reviewed quarterly reports regarding healthcare services for inmates in accordance with 103 CMR 932.01(3);
- whether ECSD provided its inmates with admission medical screenings upon admission and physical examinations within 14 days after admission, in accordance with Sections 10 and 11 of ECSD’s “Policy 103 ECSD 220.00 Medical Services”; and
- whether inmates at ECSD received medical care after submission of a sick call request form in accordance with Wellpath’s “Nonemergency Health Care Requests and Services Policy” (HCD‑100_E-07) for ECSD.
Below is a summary of our findings and recommendations, with links to each page listed.
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Finding 1 |
ECSD did not provide physical examinations to all of its inmates in a timely manner. |
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Recommendation |
ECSD should establish monitoring controls (i.e., policies and procedures) over its physical examination process to ensure that its contracted healthcare provider provides physical examinations to all of ECSD’s inmates in a timely manner. |
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Finding 2 |
ECSD did not follow up on all sick call requests in a timely manner. |
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Recommendations |
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1. ECSD informed us that if an inmate is in custody, it means that ECSD has the authorization from a court to incarcerate an inmate until the court orders their release. A death in custody is one that occurs during this period of incarceration.