Appeals Court OKs Schwarzenegger Contempt Hearing

SACRAMENTO -- A federal judge will be allowed to proceed with a contempt hearing against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for refusing to pay for improvements to inmate health care, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal from the administration that attempted to block the contempt hearing before U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson.

The contempt motion stems from a legal tussle between Schwarzenegger and the federal receiver who was appointed by the courts to oversee reform of the medical system in California's 33 adult prisons.

The receiver, J. Clark Kelso, had asked for a $250 million down payment from the state on a plan to build medical centers for physically and mentally ill inmates. Kelso's latest plan would have the state spend up to $8 billion.

The appeals court decided the case on procedural grounds. It did not weigh in on a larger question of how far the federal government can intrude on states' control of their prisons.

The court said it lacks jurisdiction to consider whether Henderson's order for the state to pay the $250 million violates state sovereignty because the judge's order was not made final before California filed its appeal.

For the same reason, it is premature to consider whether Kelso's attempt to build new prison health care centers violates federal law, the appeals court said in its 14-page ruling.

I think the current receiver is going overboard in his demands and the Judge has been overreaching, but there is no doubt there are problems with healthcare in prisons. If the statistics mentioned in this article from yesterday are *half* what is indicated, it is inexcusable, IMO

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson rejected, among other things, the state's claim that the receiver, J. Clark Kelso, is violating federal law by seeking the construction money. The state also had argued that Kelso was no longer needed because it can run its own prison medical system.
Henderson gave the receiver control of the system in 2006 after finding conditions in the state's 33 adult prisons so bad that an average of an inmate a week was dying of neglect or malpractice. That hasn't changed, he said in Tuesday's ruling.
"The court is far from confident that (state officials) have the will, capacity, or leadership to provide constitutionally adequate medical care in the absence of a receivership," Henderson said in his 24-page ruling in San Francisco. Hours later, a second federal judge said he also had considered naming a receiver to take over the prison system's mental health services, given evidence that "the state was incapable of doing its duty."
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton repeatedly said he was trying to control his temper as he lectured state officials and attorneys in his Sacramento courtroom over their failure to meet his February deadline to come up with a plan to treat mentally ill prisoners.
Karlton called it "mind-boggling" that the state lacks a treatment plan 14 years after a class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of mentally ill prisoners. The judge previously found that mental health care in state prisons is so poor that inmates frequently commit suicide.

A friend of mine is probably going to die, because he got cancer in prison,
Why make it sound like prison gave your friend cancer?

Maybe if your friend could have managed to stay out of prison and pay for insurance healthcare him/herself things would be different.

My premiums go up every year, and not just a little, almost to the point of unaffordable. Somehow now I have to also be responsible for your lowlife friend's health too?...

Sorry, I have no sympathy for you and or your friend.

Well, it’s not like prison food is the greatest, but can’t really complain about that.

It’s not like they would let him pay for his own healthcare in prison.

Yes, once somebody goes to prison, they’re life is completely in the hands of the System. You and I, the taxpayers are taking on the responsibility to feed, house, clothe and be responsible for the prisoners’ health.

That’s just how it is.

Don’t like how much you pay for prisoner housing ? Work towards reducing the number of victimless crimes.

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