A Florida-based subsidiary of Physician Correctional, Puerto Rico’s private prison health care provider, is being sued in St. Louis, Missouri, over the death of a jail detainee who allegedly convulsed for 20 minutes after being placed in a restraint chair without supervision.
Physician Correctional USA —chaired by Puerto Rican doctor, businessman and political donor Raúl Villalobos Díaz— has provided health care services at the St. Louis City Justice Center since November 2023, after it was awarded a no-bid emergency contract. Villalobos Díaz also owns Physician Correctional in Puerto Rico, which has faced controversy over accusations of serious deficiencies in its management of inmate health services.
The city of St. Louis pays Physician Correctional USA —registered in Florida in 2022— roughly $10 million per year to provide medical services at the City Justice Center, according to its current contract. The jail currently houses about 760 incarcerated people.
The lawsuit, filed Aug. 12 in St. Louis Circuit Court, comes after the Puerto Rico Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) announced it would cancel its contract with Physician Correctional because of repeated failures to meet its obligations in the island’s prisons. The contract paid Physician Correctional more than $73 million over several years. The DCR received 12 proposals from companies interested in taking over the prison healthcare system.
Physician Correctional, however, will continue to provide medical services in Puerto Rico’s prisons until the DCR identifies another provider and signs a new agreement, the agency confirmed. The DCR said it is evaluating proposals, a process expected to last until October.
The St. Louis suit claims lack of medical care contributed to the death of Samuel Hayes Jr., 31, this past July. He was allegedly left unattended in the restraint chair for two hours and convulsed and cried out before dying.
Jack Waldron, a lawyer with the Khazaeli Wyrsch firm representing Hayes’ family, said it took “about 30 seconds of Googling” to come across reports of Physician Correctional’s controversies in Puerto Rico. “I couldn’t believe the city (St. Louis) gave this company $10 million a year to do medical work with the sort of track record that they had,” Waldron said in a recent interview with the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI).
Photo by Brandon Cruz González | Centro de Periodismo Investigativo
Villalobos Díaz did not respond to a request for comment regarding the lawsuit.
After Hayes’ death, St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer said on social media that her office “is committed to ensuring accountability and a full review of the circumstances surrounding this incident.” In addition to Physician Correctional USA, Hayes’ family also sued the city of St. Louis. The CPI emailed Spencer’s office but didn’t receive a response.
The company also faced scrutiny in Puerto Rico last year following the April 2024 killing of Ivette Joan Meléndez Vega by Hermes Ávila Vázquez, who faked paraplegia to receive compassionate release based on the alleged medical condition. Before that, Physician Correctional drew scrutiny after the 2022 suicide of Shannel Colón Ponce, an incarcerated woman with a history of mental illness.
Detainee Convulsed and Cried Out Before Dying
The night of July 19, jail staff removed Hayes from his cell at the St. Louis City Justice Center after an altercation with another detainee. The suit says Hayes immediately fell out of the cell when guards opened the door, and one employee later said he looked “lethargic”.
After removing him from the cell, officers strapped Hayes to a restraint chair. “I didn’t even know the jail had chairs like that. That’s like an electrocution chair if you ask me,” said Anita Washington, Hayes’ mom, who requested to view security footage of her son’s final hours. Washington and Waldron were allowed to view the video, but the city denied a request to obtain a copy of the footage, the suit claims.
Two nurses “observed” Hayes after he was placed in the chair, but they allegedly did not provide medical checks to determine his physical condition. Washington said the exchange between Hayes and the nurses took less than a minute.
“They did it so quickly,” Washington said. “They just came in and looked at him. They immediately turned around and walked away.”
Photo provided
Minutes after being left unsupervised in the restraint chair, Hayes began to writhe in pain and called out for help. But help never arrived, according to the lawsuit.
Hayes allegedly convulsed and cried out for about 20 minutes before he stopped moving. He lay motionless on the restraint chair for an hour and a half before an employee tried to get medical assistance. Hayes was transferred to St. Louis University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“I’m really hurt by this,” said Washington, who described Hayes as an intelligent man loved by his family. “My baby was very healthy. No medical problems or anything. I don’t understand why he was strapped to this chair? Who gave the okay to strap my baby to this chair?”
Hayes is the 20th incarcerated person who has died at the St. Louis City Justice Center since 2020, according to a St. Louis Public Radio report. The city announced in 2023 it would cancel its contract with the previous medical service provider for the jail, YesCare, after a string of deaths and allegations of inadequate health care. Physician Correctional USA was contracted to replace YesCare. At least three deaths have been reported under Physician Correctional USA’s administration.
A No-Bid Contract in Missouri
The city of St. Louis, located near the Missouri-Illinois border, issued in July 2023 a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a new health service provider. In November 2023, the city awarded Physician Correctional USA a no-bid emergency contract worth $720,000 per month. For that first year, the company was paid $8.6 million.
The city also agreed to pay $250,000 toward the price of general liability insurance, which Physician Correctional USA is required to have in place, per the contract.
A report by the Missouri state auditor’s office said that St. Louis’ former commissioner of corrections indicated they had identified Physician Correctional USA “with the aid of the city Department of Health and National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC)” after realizing they would need a provider in 30 to 60 days.
The NCCHC offers a voluntary accreditation program for correctional institutions. Physician Correctional of Puerto Rico was accredited by the organization in 2023. Jim Martin, an executive of Physician Correctional USA, was vice president of program development for the NCCHC before joining the company.
Physician Correctional USA’s website features a statement by St. Louis’ former Director of Health, Mati Hlatshwayo Davis, endorsing the company and recommending its services to “any jurisdiction seeking a correctional healthcare provider rooted in accountability, compassion, and excellence.” Hlatshwayo Davis signed the city’s contracts with Physician Correctional USA.
Initially, the emergency contract had a one-year term but was later amended to extend the agreement until February 2025. That same month, the city entered a new contract with the company, with a term running from March 2025 to February 2028.
Photo provided
Under the current agreement, the city pays Physician Correctional USA an annual base rate of $9.9 million for the first year, $10.1 million for the second year and $10.3 million for the third year. This means the company will charge a total of $30.3 million during the contract term.
Waldron, the attorney, said Kansas City, a jurisdiction with a population comparable to St. Louis, pays its jail health care provider between $7 million and $8 million.
At the time St. Louis extended the emergency agreement and awarded the new contract, Physician Correctional had already made headlines in Puerto Rico because of Ávila Vázquez’s release.
Another Emergency Contract in Virginia
In addition to the St. Louis contract, Physician Correctional USA recently signed an agreement with Chesterfield County, located south of Richmond, Virginia, to provide nursing and behavioral health services.
The contract pays shy of $2.9 million. Its term started this August and runs until July 2026, with the option to renew for six consecutive one-year periods. The contract stipulates that the hourly pay rates for medical professionals range from $35 to $225.
According to the county’s procurement portal, Chesterfield awarded an initial contract to Physician Correctional USA for nursing services in 2023. Like St. Louis, this was also an emergency contract, awarded with no formal competitive process.
Familiar Faces
Physician Correctional USA’s website identifies Villalobos Díaz as the company’s chief medical officer and chairman of the Board of Directors. In Puerto Rico, Villalobos Díaz presides Physician Correctional, registered as Physician H.M.O.
An image on the website shows Bárbara Méndez, director of Administration and Operations at Physician Correctional in Puerto Rico, but she’s not identified as part of the official team of the U.S. subsidiary. Another photo shows Villalobos Díaz with his brother, Javier, who also owns Physician Correctional.
Martin, who signed Physician Correctional USA’s contracts with St. Louis, is the company’s chief operating officer. The CPI reached out to Martin to request a statement regarding the lawsuit but didn’t receive a response.
As of publication, the case’s docket didn’t show a response from Physician Correctional USA to the lawsuit.
Journalist Amanda Pérez Pintado is a member of Report for America.
