Employees at SC mental health hospital in Columbia abused patients, SLED says
In separate incidents in August, two Wellpath Recovery Solutions employees working at a state mental health hospital in Columbia physically abused patients, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said.
Both 38-year-old Aubrey James Womack and 21-year-old Jasim Jahi Stone-Marshall were arrested Tuesday, SLED said in news releases.
Womack and Stone-Marshall were separately charged with physical abuse of a vulnerable adult in unrelated incidents at Wellpath’s Columbia Regional Care Center, according to SLED.
The institution is partnered with the South Carolina Department of Mental Health. It is located at 7901 Farrow Road, near Exit 73 on Interstate 20, which is the junction with S.C. 277.
At the hospital, treatment of psychiatric disorders is offered for “individuals involved with the criminal court system for a wide range of mental illnesses and conditions,” according to Wellpath’s website.
Since Wellpath took control of the Columbia Regional Care Center in 2009, it has provided “nursing care, pharmacy, security, chaplains, facility management, and all other support services for individuals found incompetent to stand trial and not guilty by reason of insanity,” according to the website.
On Aug. 12, Womack was working as a custody officer at the Columbia Regional Care Center, according to an arrest warrant. Womack grabbed the victim — a Wellpath resident and a vulnerable adult — around his neck and pushed him into a wall, the arrest warrant said.
The attack was confirmed through interviews, surveillance footage and information provided to SLED, according to the arrest warrant.
There was no word if Womack is still employed by Wellpath.
The second incident occurred about a week later.
On Aug. 20, Stone-Marshall, who was called a former employee by SLED, was working as a custody officer at the mental institution in Richland County, an arrest warrant shows.
Stone-Marshall used a closed fist to punch the victim in the face, according to the arrest warrant. As in the previous attack, the victim was a resident and vulnerable adult, the arrest warrant said.
Again, SLED received information and confirmed the attack through interviews and surveillance footage, according to the arrest warrant.
Information on the medical conditions of the victims was not available.
Both Womack and Stone-Marshall were booked at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, SLED said. Neither man was listed on the jail’s inmate roster as of Wednesday morning, and there was no word on bond.
The 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office will prosecute the separate cases.
Until June of 2022, Wellpath was also the health care provider for the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, the embattled jail in Richland County.
In April 2022, The State reported that Wellpath had faced at least 19 state and federal lawsuits in South Carolina as well as accusations of negligence in the deaths of two detainees in other states.
In 13 of the suits, people detained in prisons and jails accused Wellpath of inadequate care or mistreatment, which the company denied in court filings. Wellpath has denied wrongdoing in all of the lawsuits it has responded to.
Of the 19 lawsuits, six were dismissed outright by the court and four were settled. As of April 2022, nine suits were still pending.
The jail has since contracted with Advance Correctional Healthcare as its new health care provider.
Wellpath, based in Nashville, Tennessee, is one of the nation’s largest medical providers for prisons and jails. It operates in 34 states and Australia, employing 15,000 caregivers for 300,000 patients at “inpatient and residential treatment facilities, civil commitment centers, and local, state and federal correctional facilities,” the company’s website says. The Nashville Business Journal said in 2018 that the company would generate $1.5 billion a year.
The company began in 2003 under the name Correct Care Solutions. In 2018, Correct Care Solutions merged with another company to form Wellpath, the Nashville Business Journal reported.
