Ivey signs health care contract for prisons

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has signed a contract to provide health care in state prisons.

Ivey’s office confirmed Monday that she signed the $360 million contract with Wexford Health Sources to supply medical and mental health care to inmates until late 2020.

Ivey signed the agreement earlier this month after the Legislative Contract Review Committee released a hold on the contract. The committee chairman briefly delayed implementation of the contact because of questions regarding the company’s ties to a Mississippi bribery scandal.

Committee Chairman Jack Williams said Monday that he released the hold because he did not want to jeopardize a potential settlement of a court order to improve mental health care.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled last year that mental health care in state prisons was “horrendously inadequate.”