Julie Small
June 01, 2009
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We could be close to an end to California's long-running battle with a federal judge over prison medical care. Corrections officials and the federal receiver in charge of improving health care for inmates say they've worked out a deal for new medical facilities in prisons. It would cost the state $4 billion. But KPCC's Julie Small says in return, California gets back what it hasn't had for years - full control of prison medical care.
Julie Small: The federal receiver's new plan is to build only a couple of new prison hospitals to treat inmates with chronic conditions. He also says he'll fix up more prison infirmaries. The cost for building and renovating is $2 billion.
It sounds like a lot when the state government's budget deficit stands at $24 billion, but it's far less than the $8 billion plan lawmakers rejected last year. And prison officials in California like the plan because when it's finished, they'll be back in charge of prison medical care. Corrections Secretary Matt Cate:
Matt Cate: Part of our deal is the receiver is going to take medical care and reincorporate it in the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation over the next six months. And then once that's done, the state will be able to demonstrate over the year that follows that we can continue to make improvements to the system. And we can demonstrate to the courts that the state itself has the ability to run its medical care system in a way that's constitutional.
Small: That wasn't true three years ago when an inmate a week died from poor care – or no care. That's when a federal judge seized control of the prison medical system, appointed a receiver – and gave him the power to tap the state's finances to fix prison health care.
The first receiver, Robert Sillen, once threatened to back up a truck to the state treasury. Sillen never put that truck in gear, but he did pay good prison doctors more – and he fired the bad ones. Clark Kelso, the current receiver, says today, preventable inmate deaths are down. He says sick inmates don't have to worry whether prison doctors know their stuff.
Clark Kelso: That's history. We now have a very qualified group of clinicians, and as a result we're not seeing large numbers where we're having disciplinary problems or where we think someone needs to have their privileges terminated.
Small: The Department of Corrections still has work to do. Medical records are still on paper, and still arrive at prisons two weeks after the inmates do. Those records will be computerized this year. But prison guards now escort inmates to medical appointments – and that didn't always happen before.
State lawmakers and a federal judge still have to sign off on the $2 billion prison medical improvement plan. If they do and if the improvements in prison medical care continue, receiver Clark Kelso says he's ready to return control of prison medical care to the prisons by the end of next year.
