According to records MPR obtained from the Department of Corrections via sunshine request, at least 110 individuals have died in Missouri’s prisons from January 1, 2024 to October 3, 2024. 110 lives lost in just nine months, under the care of the Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) and Centurion Health. These aren’t just numbers—they represent people who deserved better. And we demand to know why these deaths keep happening.
How much longer will Missouri’s prisons be allowed to operate as death traps? The DOC has failed to prevent the flow of drugs into their facilities—there are overwhelming allegations that some staff and workers are smuggling drugs inside. How can we ignore the direct role this plays in overdose deaths? The system is broken, and it’s being allowed to crumble under the DOC’s watch.
But the issue goes far beyond drugs. Where is the basic healthcare that these incarcerated individuals are entitled to? The DOC has contracted Centurion Health to provide medical services, yet reports from both staff and residents allege that many prisons lack even basic medical staff. No doctor. No nurse practitioner. No adequate care. Instead, we hear stories of individuals with incontinence left lying in their own waste for days. How is this acceptable in any system that claims to care for human life?
Centurion and the DOC need to answer these questions. Are some of the healthcare workers Centurion hires unqualified? If so, this only adds to the immense burden on the dedicated and qualified medical staff who are doing their best in a system that offers them little support. We want to thank those medical professionals who show up every day and do their jobs with integrity and care, despite being overwhelmed and under-resourced. But they cannot do it alone. Centurion’s failure to provide adequate staffing, support, and oversight is putting lives at risk—and it’s a system on the brink of collapse.
And yet, instead of addressing these life-threatening conditions, the DOC has renegotiated Centurion’s contract to provide a $20 million annual raise, bringing the projected new annual cost to $203 million through June 2028. How can the DOC justify increasing Centurion’s pay while healthcare standards continue to decline, services are delayed for months, and lives are being lost? Where is this additional funding going if not toward improving the care for Missouri’s incarcerated population? Read more about it here. https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/government-politics/missouri-gives-prison-health-care-provider-20-million-a-year-raise/article_f83708c0-826b-11ef-abaa-abf0d4ea5e4e.html
If Centurion or the DOC want to challenge these claims, we welcome it. Prove us wrong. We are calling for independent oversight to review the conditions in Missouri’s prisons. If they have nothing to hide, then let the truth come out. The people of Missouri deserve transparency, and the families of those lost deserve answers.
110 deaths in 9 months is unacceptable. This pattern of neglect and mismanagement cannot be allowed to continue. The DOC must take responsibility for hiring Centurion and for allowing these preventable deaths to occur. Enough is enough.
We will not stop asking these questions until independent oversight is in place and real change happens. The conditions in Missouri’s prisons are a humanitarian crisis, and both Centurion and the DOC must be held accountable.
If they won’t take responsibility and make the necessary changes, we must call on our legislators to step in and enforce the reforms that are so desperately needed. The public is watching, and the pressure for answers is growing. Lives are at stake, and the time for change is now.
