A new, yet-to-be-hired position intended as an overseer of medical care in Denver’s jails could improve transparency between Denver Health and the sheriff’s department, a concern that has come to light after a man died of illness in custody last year.

Sheriff Elias Diggins discussed the administrative position in a meeting with Denver’s Citizen Oversight Board March 3. The 2023 operating agreement between the city and Denver Health allows the sheriff to choose a representative for the city as a liaison for communications between Denver and Denver Health, as well as act as administrator for city-paid jailhouse health care services. Despite its name, Denver Health is a state body.

The operating agreement also specifies that Denver Health has to designate an employee for the administrator to work with to “satisfactorily resolve any issue or concern.”

“During the next couple of months, we anticipate the impact will be some additional oversight, based on that person’s background, to ensure the services that were being provided are those that are expected by our department, by the rest of the city, by the folks that our in our custody and by the community as well,” Diggins said.

The provision in the 2023 agreement between the city and Denver Health expands on language in the 2022 agreement, which designated the sheriff as Denver’s representative for health care in the detention centers or allowed him to choose a representative.

“The purpose of the position is to increase communication and transparency between the two entities and to give DSD a more active role in medical care within our jails,” Department of Public Safety spokesperson Kelly Jacobs said in an email. She clarified the administrator has not yet been hired.

The conversation in last week’s board meeting came up as members raised their ongoing frustrations concerning transparency by Denver Health concerning the death of Leroy Taylor in the downtown detention center in 2022. Taylor, 71, died of illness on Feb. 9 after days of worsening symptoms, including nausea, chest pains and trouble breathing. Fellow inmates and sheriff’s department officials tried to get Taylor medical care, but health workers in the jail sent him back to his cell several times.

Citizen Oversight Board members and attorneys for Taylor’s family have indicated they don’t fault the sheriff’s department for his death. But they say it highlights confusion in accountability and oversight between the agency and Denver Health. The Department of Public Safety has not received an internal investigation report from Denver Health, and it’s not clear exactly what measures the hospital authority took after Taylor’s death.

Jacobs said the new administrative position will not have a role in discipline, which is a function of the executive director of safety.

Diggins said the new administrative role echoes a previous position for oversight of the contract between the sheriff’s department and Denver Health — created when he was a major. The person in the role had both a legal and medical background.

“I’ve been to jails from border-to-border and coast-to-coast. One of the most complex things that jails have to provide is medical care, and in relation to other medical providers, I think Denver Health and jail services does a very good job,” Diggins said.

As far as timing of the new hire, he said: “We’ll move forward with putting that position in place here in the next few months.”