The head of the company selected to take over health care and mental health services at the Shasta County Jail will introduce himself and outline his plans for the Redding facility during the Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, April 7.
During an interview on Thursday, April 2, Mediko Correctional Healthcare founder and CEO Dr. Kaveh Ofogh outlined changes in store for the 484-bed jail, which is facing several lawsuits from family members of people who have died while in custody there.
Shasta supervisors voted unanimously in March to approve awarding a three-year, $25 million contract to Virginia-based Mediko. The contract amount represents a 40% annual increase, or an additional $3 million a year, compared to the current contract with longtime correctional healthcare provider Wellpath. The contract would expire June 30, 2029.
On Tuesday, the board will consider amendments to the Mediko agreement, including starting the contract on June 1, one month earlier than the original date, according to the staff report.
The new contract in Redding comes as Mediko is making a push to boost its West Coast presence.
Mediko has faced its own lawsuits and “strategically” settled a handful of cases over the years, Ofogh said. “It is the nature of this industry … that inmates have a tendency to file lawsuits. It’s not normal to get lawsuits every week or every month, but it’s a tendency of the environment,” he said.
One recent media report in South Carolina said a new correctional healthcare company may be sought after several lawsuits against Mediko alleging wrong deaths of detainees in a detention center there were filed in 2025 and early 2026.
Still, said Ofogh, the company has an “untarnished track record in litigation” because Mediko “hasn’t had a single judgment related to our practices for the past consecutive 30 years, since the company was incepted in 1996.”
Plans for Shasta County Jail
Ofogh said his company plans to increase staffing and standardize training of medical personnel at the Redding jail and has already started recruiting new medical staff.
He said he will also meet with the jail’s nursing staff and county health officials before going on to visit Mediko operations at jail sites in Washington.
Officials are now recruiting to fill 10 additional nursing and support roles in Redding, he said.
Those workers will include RNs to provide medical screenings for people within their first four hours of being admitted to the jail.
“The sooner we detect these mental and medical conditions, the sooner we can be proactive and the less likely bad things would happen,” he said.
Additional nursing personnel will also enable Mediko to provide more mental health care coverage to incarcerated people and oversee medication-assisted drug detox for Shasta County Jail inmates, according to the company.
Ofogh said a discharge planner will be added to connect individuals who leave the jail with medical and mental health treatment services in the community. There will also be expanded hours for inmates to get treatment from physicians and dentists “to reduce care backlogs,” said the company.
Having more personnel will deliver “more timely, proactive” medical and mental health services to incarcerated people, said Ofogh. “This population … is generally underserved. When they get incarcerated, they suffer from many medical and mental health conditions that have not been diagnosed, or were under-diagnosed, before they arrive at the jail.”
Ofogh said Mediko is offering higher salaries to attract more health care staff. He did not give pay specifics.
If the jail is holding more than 460 inmates, the contract says Mediko would be required to hire more personnel to continue providing the same level of health care.
In 2024, the average number of Shasta County Jail inmates was 398. The jail’s average population stands at 278 this year, due to an ongoing security electronics construction project, according to the sheriff’s department.
Costs of contracts with Mediko have been stumbling blocks in the company’s negotiations with jails in other states.
According to the company’s website, Mediko incorporates telemedicine and telepsychiatry services.
Ofogh said he expects that health care professionals will want to join a physician-led company that’s dedicated to delivering good medical care and pays well.
Ofogh said he is a former emergency medicine specialist who founded Mediko 30 years ago. “When I started to work in corrections as a physician, I fell in love with it in two months and I never looked back,” he said.
“I believe every single inmate … is entitled to receive the same standard of care that individuals would receive who are not incarcerated. There should not be two standards, one for inmates and a different standard for people who are not incarcerated,” he said.
Correctional healthcare in Redding
The Shasta County Jail contract will be Mediko’s second in California.
The jail health care company now operating in 25 facilities primarily on or near the East Coast began providing medical, mental health and dental services at the San Benito County Jail and youth detention center in Hollister in July.
Shasta County Sheriff Michael Johnson last year urged that a new provider be found to provide medical care at the Redding jail to rectify understaffing and legal liability. A 2019 study of correctional deputies and medical staff at the Shasta County Jail determined the facility was “grossly understaffed” in both areas, according to Johnson.
The jail’s current longtime health care provider, Nashville-based Wellpath, filed for bankruptcy in late 2024 when the company faced about 1,500 lawsuits, most of them alleging deficient medical care for inmates.
“The selection of Mediko is based on more than just a dollar amount,” said Johnson. “It’s based on looking at our liability, changing the culture in the jail, changing the service to the inmates and our exposure.”
According to a May 2025 report from the Shasta County Grand Jury, a total of 22 in-custody deaths of inmates were reported between 2019 and 2024 at the Shasta County Jail.
That compared to five in-custody inmate deaths in Butte County and one each in Imperial and Madera counties during the same period, according to the grand jury’s report.
Michele Chandler covers public safety, reports on trials in Shasta County Superior Court, writes about restaurants and foodies and handles whatever else comes up for the Redding Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. Accepts story tips at 530-338-7753 and at mrchandler@gannett.com. Please support our entire newsroom’s commitment to public service journalism by subscribing today.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Hear what’s ahead for Shasta County Jail under new health care CEO
Reporting by Michele Chandler, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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