Inmate health care will cost about $10,000 more a month at the Madison County jail within the next year, members of the Madison County Commission were told at their Oct. 25 meeting.

The commission approved a more than $3.2 million contract extension with Chattanooga-based Southern Health Partners to provide care at the facility.

That does not include another $159,000 the county will pay the company to fight opioid addiction among inmates at the facility. That money is being provided through opioid lawsuit settlements, of which the county has received almost $1 million to date.

“Southern Health Partners is just like any other business,” Madison County Sheriff Kevin Turner said. “They’re competing with the hospitals in our surrounding area in hiring nurses and staff. Every three months or so, they may change out a nurse because they’ve been hired on at Huntsville Hospital and get a sign-on bonus.”

Turner said “there’s a lot that goes into play with just them raising their rate, of trying to compete and just to stay in business.”

“We do have a great working relationship with them,” the sheriff said. “No one’s perfect. As far as the relationship goes and what they do for our jail, they have really done a good job since I’ve been here.”