Under pressure from inmate advocates and with legislative support evaporating, Mayor Vincent C. Gray on Tuesday backed off a plan to award a $66.1 million contract for health care at the D.C. jail to a controversial Tennessee firm.
City procurement officials had tentatively awarded the three-year contract last month to Corizon Health Inc. — the nation’s largest provider of health care in prisons and jails, operating in more than 500 facilities in 27 states. The D.C. Council was set to vote on the contract Wednesday.