Posted on 05/28/2009 6:02:28 PM PDT by SmithL
Sacramento, CA (AP) --
The Schwarzenegger administration and a federal court appointee have agreed to the framework of a legal settlement to overhaul the way medical care is delivered to prison inmates.
The outline of the proposal was given Thursday to The Associated Press and would be the first step toward ending a long-running legal drama that appeared headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The proposed agreement, if accepted by the federal courts and the Legislature, would call for a sharply scaled-down and far less expensive plan to improve poor inmate medical care than the one the federal receiver previously presented.
California Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate and J. Clark Kelso, the court-appointed receiver who oversees prison medical care, said their plan includes building two prison hospitals to house 3,400 inmates. The cost would be $1.9 billion.
The plan Kelso originally submitted to the court called for building seven medical centers to house 10,000 inmates, with construction costs of about $6 billion.
The settlement they outlined to the AP was a concession to fiscal reality as California faces a $24.3 billion budget deficit. Both said final details would be worked out in the next few days, and the settlement still needs approval from the federal courts and state lawmakers.
"We're in a financial crisis," Kelso said. "We've been able to figure out how to spend a lot less money than we'd been talking about last year."
Under the proposed settlement, the state would end its lawsuit attempting to terminate the receivership, while Kelso would halt his effort to hold Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in contempt of court for failing to turn over construction money.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
So the American tax payer is going to pay for California prisoner health care?
March them in, lock cell, lose key.
California can’t afford it so YOU in another state, will have to PAY for it. Besides we want prisoners to have high self esteem and be well cared for. This will be the way out of control states get a free pass.
G-I-T-M-O
Cool hand Luke should be a training film on how to run a prison cheaply and effectively.
The libs are intentionally destroying this country. The liberal judges declare tht inmates must be given free healthcare, three meals a day, and comfy quarters. Then the liberal politicians bankrupt the state government in order to create an excuse for the liberal judges to spring the prisoners when the state can’t meet the heavy burdens the judges have placed on them.
Privatize Cal’s prisons.
What ever happened to States’ Rights?
Does this mean that we don’t have to pay for the inmates sex change operations any more?
Under the original Kelso plan, there were aroma therapy centers and personal trainers for the prisoners. Perhaps the budget deficit will result in some common sense in CA.
Funny how that works, eh? Californians could demand that Kelso perform all surgical care on prison inmates, with Ahnold assisting.
Worked for the State of Texas in a Correctional Officer capacity. Its absolute garbage. Alot of these guys use an alleged health care issue as a reason to “catch out” or get sent to medical. These guys are so depraved that they use that excuse so they can go have a woman(nurse) “feel up” on them as they put it. Its such a screwed up system. Yet we would get in trouble if we told them to go screw themselves. We were also subjected to the verbal and sometimes possible physical abuses and we got in trouble if we ever cussed them. Its unreal.
Life is indeed precious.
To Democrats, the lives of the wicked are precious.
To genuine non-RINO Republicans, the lives of the innocent are precious.
I went to grad school with a CA Correctional Nurse Supervisor.
She said a common hazing for new or “difficult” nurses was to “accidently” lock them in with the high security population. She was VERY tough so she shugged it off, laughing with the prisioners.
Hard to imagine they got too many great applicants, however, in that kind of climate.
Yeah alot of correctional staff enjoy their power trips.
Nice one...
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