On Tuesday, September 13, 2016, Sin Barras organizers went to the Board of Supervisors meeting to comment publicly on the contract renewal with for-profit correctional medical service provider California Forensic Medical Group (CFMG). We achieved several successes, including:
- The Board of Supervisors supports the need to receive feedback from people in jail about medical services
- The Sheriff is interested in working with us to get feedback from people in jail
- CFMG personnel showed interest in speaking to us about improving their operations
- Other community members at the Board meeting for other reasons expressed their support
- An article about our appearance was published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel
Bottomline: We are against having a private contractor like CFMG provide medical services at the jail; however, we cannot let another person die in jail of neglect, or allow needless suffering to continue to happen because of inadequate care. If we have to work with CFMG and the Sheriff to make sure of this, then we will.