CA: Judge seeks oversight of prison health system; reform bill signed

FOLSOM, Calif. - A federal judge on Tuesday moved to place the state prison system's troubled health care operations into receivership, complicating a massive prison overhaul bill signed into law hours earlier by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, ruling in a class-action lawsuit brought against the California Department of Corrections, said the state's 162,000 prisoners "are being subjected to an unconstitutional system fraught with medical neglect and malfeasance."

"Defendants themselves have conceded that a significant number of prisoners have died as a direct result of this lack of care, and it is clear to the court that more are sure to suffer and die if the system is not immediately overhauled," he said.

Henderson's ruling, in San Francisco, came after Schwarzenegger appeared at Folsom State Prison to sign into law the most sweeping overhaul in three decades of the nation's largest prison system.

Schwarzenegger's signature was expected. The Republican governor has been calling for major reforms to the $7 billion-a-year system since shortly after he took office in November 2003. He helped craft a bipartisan solution through months of negotiations with the Democrat-controlled Legislature.

"When I came into office, we faced some very serious problems with our correctional system, including out-of-control budgets, a failed internal discipline system and a disturbing lack of accountability," Schwarzenegger said. "And the more we looked at the problems, the more we realized that the first step that we must take is to reorganize the whole agency."

The law restructures the bureaucracy of the 32-prison system and concentrates power with his hand-picked corrections czar, Youth and Adult Corrections Secretary Roderick Hickman.

Schwarzenegger said attention must now turn to several reforms: improving the health care system targeted by the judge Tuesday; overhauling a youth corrections system experts described as draconian; and fixing a rehabilitation system so flawed that the majority of ex-convicts are soon back behind prison walls.

It's unclear what affect Henderson's ruling will have on the governor's overall reform plan, since it could take control of the health care system out of the state's hands.

Top prison officials have acknowledged they can't manage the inmate medical system. They said they are counting on consultants and the legislation the governor signed Tuesday to make improvements that should have begun more than a year ago.

Prison department spokesman Todd Slosek said it is "unknown at this time" whether the state would oppose a receiver.

"The department's interest all along was for ... constitutionally adequate health care to our inmates," he said.

The judge said he will appoint a receiver to force improvements unless the Department of Corrections convinces him otherwise. He will make his final decision following a July 11 hearing.

In a review of 193 prison deaths, Henderson said many of the medical records were lost and that 34 of them were "highly problematic, with multiple instances of incompetence, indifference, neglect and even cruelty by medical staff."

One inmate, Henderson said, was given medication for high blood pressure in 2002 and was not seen again by physicians until he was found dead.

In a separate ruling Tuesday, Henderson said he also might hold the corrections department in contempt of court for not abiding by a June 2002 agreement to improve health care.

He said the department has failed to achieve "any substantial progress in bringing the medical care system even close to minimal constitutional standards."

Tuesday's federal court decision is the latest instance in which the courts have sought to exert control over California's problem-plagued prison system.

Federal judges already are assuming oversight of pieces of what on July 1 will become the new Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The combined department will replace what now are the California Department of Corrections and the California Youth Authority.

Another judge has appointed a special master to help reform the youth authority, while a separate special master is being considered to oversee stalled parole reforms.

Schwarzenegger, driven by near-constant prison scandals, made reorganizing the system the vanguard of his larger plan to restructure state government.

"This is just the first step," said Hickman, who will have responsibility for the entire system.

I work in the Texas Department of Corrections as a Medical Director. I am a physician (MD).
I can assure you that American prisoners are the best treated prisoners in the world. How do I know this? I have personally visited the prisons (inside, up front and personal) in Nicarauga at Tipitapa, and at San Jorges Prison in Downtown Lima, Peru.
Their most pressing problem is funding. Nicarauga gets 10 cents a month per prisoner to run their prison (I'm not kidding). They cannot feed their prisoners (I'm not kidding). If their family's cannot bring them food, some world relief organization donates soy beans... they get one bowl of boiled soy beans and one plantain a day to survive (I'm not kidding)... same at the women's prison, which I also visited.
In Lima, Peru, the situation is somewhat better... they recieve one dollar per month per prisoner (~900 dollars a month) to treat 900 prisoners. (I'm not exagerating)
This is, in fact, dismal for those people... In America... we treat prisoners with AIDS and Hepatitis C (35% of the US prison population) to the tune of $33,000/month for AIDS drugs alone at my one Texas prison out of 113 prisons).
In my prison, the most common neutritional problem is obesity (rampant)... we throw food away. (I'm not exagerating).
So all of you feel good, liberal wanna be's, who bleed and moan at the thought of all those California prisoners.... get a load of reality. This is the best in the world, this is the best that it ever has been in this world... if you don't want in this situation, don't do methamphetamines, don't do smack, don't rob your neighbor, don't rape children, don't kill people when you drive drunk, and don't robe convenience stores... it is as simple as that.
Go on, weep for them, I truely love some of these men. Some of them are there unrightously... but most are plain lame, and dangerous. If they were to let them all out today, it would be pure mayhem... you do not want these men living next to your family... I'm not exagerating.

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