Judge: Calif. must pay for prison health care

AP via SacBee ^ | 10/6/8 | DON THOMPSON - Associated Press Writer

[SmithL]

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge scolded California officials on Monday for failing to provide the billions of dollars a court-appointed receiver says is needed to upgrade the state's prison health care system.

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson made it clear he expects California to pay $8 billion for seven new inmate medical facilities. But he stopped short of immediately holding Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Controller John Chiang in contempt for failing to turn over the money.

The judge says he is likely to order the state to pay $250 million as a first installment to demonstrate good faith.

J. Clark Kelso, the court-appointed receiver, said he needs that amount to start designing three new medical and mental health units. Kelso said he will need more than $3 billion before July 1 to begin building them. The rest of the $8 billion would come in later years.

"He needs the money to run it and improve it," Henderson said as he repeatedly dismissed objections from the state's deputy attorney general.

He noted a sense of urgency to reform California's delivery of inmate medical care and said the price tag to fix it should not be an obstacle.

"Defendants' argument would seem to allow federal constitutional rights to be trampled any time a state decides it would cost too much money," he said at the opening of the hearing.

Medical care in California's prisons is so bad it has been ruled unconstitutional. Henderson appointed a receiver to run the prison medical system after finding that an average of an inmate a week was dying from neglect or malpractice.

The judge said he suspects that "nothing more than political intermeddling" is blocking the state from paying the money. He criticized the Schwarzenegger

[SmithL]

Black-robed Tyrants!

[SmithL]

Henderson, Thelton Eugene

Born 1933 in Shreveport, LA

Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U. S. District Court, Northern District of California
Nominated by Jimmy Carter on May 9, 1980, to a seat vacated by Cecil F. Poole; Confirmed by the Senate on June 26, 1980, and received commission on June 30, 1980. Served as chief judge, 1990-1997. Assumed senior status on November 28, 1998.

Education:
University of California, Berkeley, B.A., 1956

University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, J.D., 1962

Professional Career:
U.S. Army Corporal, 1956-1958
Attorney, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 1962-1963
Private practice, Oakland, California, 1964-1966
Directing attorney, East Bayshore Neighborhood Legal Center, East Palo Alto, California, 1966-1969
Assistant dean, Stanford Law School, 1968-1977
Private practice, San Francisco, California, 1977-1980
Associate professor, Golden Gate University School of Law, 1978-1980

Race or Ethnicity: African American

Gender: Male

Bibliography

[Tzimisce]

The Soviet of California is beginning to collapse under the weight of its own Socialism.

Eventually, the government will fail if nothing is done...

[ronnie raygun]

Not to worry, when Obama and his radicals enter the whitehouse they will free all the oppressed in the prison system so they can apply for national healthcare!

[w1andsodidwe]

And we wonder why Arnold has to ask the feds for a loan. it is time for judicial reform. This illustrates one reason why government budgets get out of control.

[Argus]

Henderson appointed a receiver to run the prison medical system after finding that an average of an inmate a week was dying from neglect or malpractice.

Does this effing piece of crap know what proportion of the non-criminal population dies every week from "neglect or malpractice"? You know, just for comparison's sake.

Where's OUR eight billion, judge?

[BigFinn]

But he stopped short of immediately holding Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Controller John Chiang in contempt for failing to turn over the money.

What a joke. What money? You can't get blood out of a dried up turnip. A rapist and murderer gets better health care than a hard working citizen. How more out of whack can it possibly get? The pitchforks to you.

[Amerigomag]

The good news: Now the Austrian can ask shrub for $16B.

[Parley Baer]

“And we wonder why Arnold has to ask the feds for a loan”

Yep, and a 7 billion dollar loan at that. As a Californian I say no. Let's the those that vote dimocRAT get their do.

[Thane_Banquo]

Taxpayers already pay for prisoners’ healthcare. We call it “lethal injection.”

[CA Conservative]

Exactly what can the judge do if the state refuses to pony up the money? He can hold them in contempt, but so what? Try to have them arrested? In a showdown between the CHP and the US Marshalls, I'd probably put my money on the CHP...

Schwarzenkennedy should tell the judge to pund sand, but he won't.

[muawiyah]

He seems to be oblivious to the fact that Federal failure to enforce its own laws regarding entry of foreigners to the United States has led to about half those guys needing to be imprisoned.

Schwarzenegger should bring in the buses and start sending them South filled to the brim with illegals presently jailed.

[w1andsodidwe]

I agree

[river rat]

How in hell can a “medical facility” to treat PRISONERS cost 1 Billion each?

Why in hell should PRISONERS receive better care than the citizens they victimized????

Prison is NOT a Spa to be made whole again - while serving time...
The VERY minimum of care should be provided....

This sounds like a plan to provide sex change operations, tattoo removal, breast implants, penis pumps and who the hell knows what else!

Kalifornicate has indeed gone NUTS!
This state DESERVES bankruptcy...

Let them pay for this foolishness by a 20% reduction in State Employees.
A 20% reduction in pay -— across the board.
A 40% reduction in their outrageous PENSION benefits..

THEN I’ll believe we’re in a crises..
Until them — buzz off.

[river rat]

MORE grief from Jimmy Carter - the destroyer.

If Arnold doesn’t appeal to a higher and more sane court - he’s insane.

[jas3]

Actually the guy who sued and is the receiver, J. Clark Kelso, is a registered Republican. Apparently the California SSR kills a lot of people in their gulags....an embarrassingly high number.

The Constitution does prohibit cruel and unusual punishment of prisoners, and death by TB or MRSA due to neglect might actually fall into that category.

Not that I’m a prisoners’ rights advocate, but the Marxists who run California, actually do run their prison system very much like the Cubans. That’s really not a good thing, gents. The United States is a lot better than than, and while we shouldn’t coddle our inmates, we shouldn’t mistreat them either.

And I have no idea what the $8 billion is or is not for and suspect the receiver is open to negotiations. But if the California legislature weren’t run by Marxist children who have ignored decades of court orders to stop killing their inmates, this case would never have gone to the Federal courts in the first place.

I have very limited knowledge of how widespread and severe the medical mistreatment of California’s prison population was and is. So if you can refute my basic understanding with some quantifiable metrics, please feel free to post some hard numbers.

jas3

[VeniVidiVici]

A wake-up-again call comes in the form of a new analysis of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) inmate deaths in 2006. Of 426 deaths that year, 66 of them — or 15 percent — were preventable (18) or possibly preventable (48). Among the non- preventable medical deaths (315), more than half reflected lapses in care that may have contributed to earlier death or more suffering among terminal patients. http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/09/66_california_i.html

18 deaths out of 426 out of a prison population of 170,000 were preventable. And they need $8bil to cover it. Sounds like a typical, fleece the taxpayer, government operation.

[jas3]

A wake-up-again call comes in the form of a new analysis of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) inmate deaths in 2006. Of 426 deaths that year, 66 of them — or 15 percent — were preventable (18) or possibly preventable (48). Among the non- preventable medical deaths (315), more than half reflected lapses in care that may have contributed to earlier death or more suffering among terminal patients. http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/09/66_california_i.html

18 deaths out of 426 out of a prison population of 170,000 were preventable. And they need $8bil to cover it. Sounds like a typical, fleece the taxpayer, government operation.

Is not being dead your metric for demonstrating the provision of adequate healthcare?

That same link you posted includes this comment:

Posted by: B. Cayenne Bird at September 19, 2007 07:01 PM

As a nurse who worked in the prison system, it took me 3 months to get my two buildings back on track with medical follow ups to their chronic medical issues. The guards didn't like me because I was DOING MY JOB. They made my life hell and I had to leave for my own health sake and sanity. I felt so guilty leaving those men behind....they are not all animals (as portrayed on TV),but believe me, they do live in hell. ANY sane man would go insane in that environment. The guards and wardens don't want medical people around. I have no idea how this will EVER be corrected. We treat our animals better. I can only imagine the anquish of the parents of these men. Money offers wouldn't keep me in the environment I had to work in created by the guards. My prisoners always treated me respectfully. The guards RARELY did.

Maybe you can put your hands on something like TB rates instead of just counting the not-dead as healthy?

jas3

[Bernard Marx]

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[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

Well the state pays for everything else. I expect soon they will just order the state to pay for groceries.