Nursing home for prison inmates opening in Milledgeville

12-20-16 Georgia:

A former prison doctor has opened a nursing home that will take up to 280 elderly and infirm inmates who otherwise might not have a place to go when they’re paroled.

“Even for a person who has no health issues, finding appropriate housing when on parole can be very, very complicated,” said Sara Totonchi, executive director of the Southern Center for Human Rights. “When you add in health issues or mobility issues or other challenges it can be nearly impossible to find.”

The Bostick Nursing Center in Milledgeville, on the site of a demolished prison, is the first in Georgia that was conceived specifically for parolees. It will begin accepting parolee-residents early next year.

There were already three nursing homes in South Georgia that accepted parolees but catered to the general public — in Montrose, Byromville and Pineview. With no spaces specifically set aside for one-time prisoners, parolees are accepted only if there is room; each has between 10 and 20 parolees in residence and at least two of them cannot take sex offenders. Messages left at the three nursing homes were not returned.

Purchase of former Georgia prison to run nursing home for inmates raises concern

3-11-2014 Georgia:

ATLANTA — A physician with a yearslong relationship with the Georgia Department of Corrections has bought a 700-bed former prison for $50,000 — half its appraised value — and stands to make millions running it as a nursing home for old and sick parolees.

At least one competing business complains that the state gave Dr. Carlo Musso, who has conducted its executions, a sweetheart deal and did not give others a realistic shot at the property.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution tried to contact Musso over several days at CorrectHealth, his prison and jail medical-care company, but he did not respond to messages. The Department of Corrections and State Board of Pardons and Paroles, which will decide who goes to the planned Bostick Nursing Center, declined requests for interviews and would only answer questions — though not all of them — via email.

The sale was completed on Thursday. But documents obtained by the AJC show the state began talking about the property with Musso exclusively at least three years ago, long before advertising it for sale.

DOC's talks with Musso then were about leasing the now closed Bostick State Prison in a deal that would have netted the state almost $537,000 a year in rent. The state would have also invested roughly $8 million in renovations, $2 million of it in prison labor.