La Plata Jail Officials Accuse Mercy Hospital of Early Inmate Discharges

A La Plata County jail sergeant sent a recently discharged inmate back to Mercy Hospital after the 82-bed Durango facility released him. On the second visit, hospital staff discovered the man had internal bleeding and rushed him into lifesaving surgery.

That intervention, born of institutional distrust rather than coordination, anchors a growing dispute between La Plata County Detention Center officials and CommonSpirit Mercy Hospital. Jail officials say Mercy has repeatedly discharged inmates without adequate care. Mercy president Josh Neff countered in a written statement that "patient safety is our highest priority" and that the hospital is "unaware of specific cases in which care requests from jail staff were not met."

The conflict traces to the August 16, 2023, death of Daniel John Foard, 32, a cook at a local Durango brewpub who was booked into La Plata County Jail on August 11 on a failure-to-appear warrant tied to a fentanyl possession charge. Over five days, Foard was placed on an opiate withdrawal protocol, appeared to improve, then collapsed repeatedly, rating his abdominal pain "10 out of 10." Surveillance video showed him crawling between cells and calling out for help. No doctor was called during his final 15 hours; no vitals were taken. La Plata County Coroner Dr. Michael Arnall determined he died of acute peritonitis from a perforated duodenal ulcer, a highly treatable condition.

In direct response, jail officials adopted the maxim "When in doubt, send them out," written on a whiteboard in the nurses' office and repeated during the La Plata County commissioners' annual jail tour. The approach improved responsiveness but has not resolved the standoff with Mercy. Sheriff Sean Smith described the dynamic as "an uphill battle we have with them."

Foard's parents, Susan Gizinski and Jim Foard, filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit on July 21, 2025, in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado naming Sheriff Smith, the La Plata County Board of County Commissioners, and Southern Health Partners, the Tennessee-based company contracted to provide day-to-day medical care inside the jail. The suit, filed by Denver law firm Holland, Holland Edwards & Grossman, alleges staff showed "shocking indifference" to Foard's repeated pleas. Attorney John Holland cited the constitutional stakes: "The 8th Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The founding fathers recognized that people in jail cannot be treated with cruelty."

Southern Health Partners, known as SHP, holds a $501,000-per-year contract covering up to 140 inmates daily, roughly 20 percent less than the prior provider's $680,000 annual cost. The contract was originally awarded in 2016 and renewed without competitive bidding in 2023. The lawsuit alleges SHP maximized profits by staffing only one nurse at a time. Former jail nurse Allison Mitchell separately sued SHP for retaliation after she reported concerns about staff disregarding public health protocols.

The pattern of rapid hospital returns extends beyond the internal bleeding case. In January 2025, two female inmates survived opioid overdoses at the jail, were administered Narcan, and transported to Mercy; one was discharged back to the jail the same day and the other that same afternoon.

La Plata County Commissioner Matt Salka said commissioners plan to meet with Mercy administrators in the coming months. "I'm not here to throw stones at the hospital," Salka said. "We've just got to figure out how to address this bouncing back and forth not only for our inmates, but for our residents."

Dolores County operates no jail of its own. Inmates arrested here are housed at the Montezuma County Detention Center in Cortez. But Mercy Hospital, as the region's primary acute-care facility, serves as a medical backstop for serious cases across southwestern Colorado. How that hospital handles medically compromised patients upon discharge is a question that does not stop at La Plata County's border.