A statewide survey by the Investigative Reporting Lab at Yale and the Arkansas Advocate found that Arkansas county jails rely heavily on private providers to deliver health care, creating a fragmented system that has struggled with safety and adequacy issues. Nearly every jail hires a private provider ranging from individual contracted nurses to large health care companies.
Eighteen Arkansas jails contract with TK Health, formerly Turn Key Health Clinics, an Oklahoma-based provider serving jails in 13 states. A joint investigation by The Marshall Project and The Frontier found that at least 50 people died under TK Health’s care between 2014 and 2024, with dozens of cases where staff failed to send people in crisis to hospitals. In Arkansas, TK Health paid the family of 51-year-old Larry Price Jr. a $3 million settlement after his death from acute dehydration and malnutrition in Sebastian County Jail in 2021, though the company denied wrongdoing. Sebastian County also paid the family $3 million.
Since Price’s death, TK Health has reached settlements with families of several others who died while under its care. Over the past five years, more than a dozen people have died while in the custody of jails and sheriffs’ offices contracting with TK Health. Despite the litigation, counties continue to pay millions annually for TK Health’s services. Union County paid the company more than $220,000 the year Rodricus Lewis died, while Pulaski County paid about $6 million in 2025 for care in its roughly 1,200-person jail.
Some jails contract with individual nurses or doctors who visit weekly, while others operate their own programs. Many jail health care providers have faced numerous lawsuits related to care quality and adequacy. Experts note that jail health care is entirely funded by counties, leaving local budgets to determine available resources for specialized medical staff.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2026/04/02/survey-of-arkansas-jails-reveals-strained-costly-health-care-system