Jail medical company fired after whistleblower nurse warned medical delays put patients at risk in Sherburne County
SHERBURNE COUNTY, Minn. — As of Sept. 1, the Sherburne County jail severed ties with its longtime jail doctor and his controversial company.
Internal documents and emails obtained by KARE 11 through an open records request reveal the county’s decision to end its contract with MEnD Correctional Care came after a MEnD employee blew the whistle about dangerously low staffing levels and delays in providing inmates with medical care.
“The current staffing levels put the patients and my license at risk,” Registered Nurse Corey Pearson wrote in an email cc’d to MEnD’s owner Todd Leonard and Sheriff Joel Brott.
That May 2022 email set off a firestorm.
Counties Cut MEnD
At its height, MEnD Correctional Care contracted with dozens of counties across Minnesota and Midwestern states to provide jail medical care for incarcerated people.
That number has steadily decreased over the past 10 months.
In January, the state medical board indefinitely suspended the license of Dr. Todd Leonard, MEnD’s founder and owner.
The suspension was over a failure to provide medical care in 2018 in Beltrami County where inmate Hardel Sherrell died on a cell floor laying in his own filth.
A KARE 11 Investigation in 2020 revealed that Sherrell’s pleas for help were often ignored by jail and MEnD medical staff who wrongly believed he was faking.
A former MEnD nurse practitioner who treated...
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