NEWS

Jail health care firm won't release suicide report

Tony Leys
tleys@dmreg.com

A national company that provides physical and mental health care at the Polk County Jail won't give the sheriff a copy of a report it wrote about Jeff Cornick's January suicide there.

Corizon Health, which is based in Tennessee, produced the report about how its staff performed in the incident. Sheriff Bill McCarthy has said he would like to read it and tell Cornick's family what's in it, but the company won't provide it to him.

MORE: Grieving father: Stop jailing people for mental illness

A company spokeswoman told the Register that the report is considered a "peer-review" document put together by medical staff. Under Iowa law, such documents are confidential, she said.

McCarthy said Corizon's staff apparently had no interaction with Jeff Cornick during his Jan. 8 jailing until after Cornick was found unconscious under a bunk bed, with a sheet tied around his neck.

The Corizon staff's sole role with Cornick that day was helping jailers try to revive him, the sheriff said. Because of that, he doubts the company's report would offer much new information on the suicide.

However, Cornick's father, Jim Cornick, wonders if the report also includes discussion of what Corizon staff members did or didn't do for Jeff during earlier trips to the jail — and whether they should have provided some kind of care or oversight after he was booked back in on Jan. 8.

Disability Rights Iowa, a federally sanctioned group that investigates treatment of people with disabilities, is looking into the Cornick case. The group's lawyer told Jim Cornick she has obtained a copy of the Corizon report. But Executive Director Jane Hudson said she couldn't comment on the case unless her agency publishes a formal report on it.