Pubdate: Thu, 17 Apr 2008
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2008 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

COSTLY PRISON HEALTHCARE

Because the Legislature Wouldn't Fix the Inmate Medical System, the 
State Is Facing a $7-Billion Bill.

California's leaders are faced with the job of under-funding the 
state's already struggling schools and cutting services to the poor 
because of a chronic budget shortfall, exacerbated by the weak 
economy. But on the bright side, we stand to get a whole bunch of 
gleaming new prison buildings.

The federal receiver in charge of the state's prison healthcare 
system has requested $7 billion to pay for seven new facilities for 
chronically sick or mentally ill inmates. The Legislature will have 
little choice but to go along because the receiver, J. Clark Kelso, 
is backed by the power of the federal bench, which can order the 
state to spend the money. This comes at a time when the shortfall has 
been projected at up to $16.5 billion, though it has since been 
reduced through borrowing and budget cuts.

Lawmakers are crying foul about the added burden on the budget, even 
though they have no one but themselves to blame. A prison crisis that 
combines overcrowding, a negligent healthcare program and a crumbling 
juvenile justice system has been worseningfor three decades, during 
which time dozens of studies have chronicled the problems and pointed 
the way to solving them. The reports are now gathering dust on a 
shelf somewhere, ignored by lawmakers. Indeed, legislators and the 
electorate have decisively made matters worse by approving 
get-tough-on-crime initiatives that further cram prisons and do 
nothing to address conditions inside.

One of the latest studies, released in January 2007 by the 
independent state oversight agency known as the Little Hoover 
Commission, is a model of the form. It practically shrieked at 
lawmakers to implement the needed reforms, which include creating an 
independent sentencing commission that could lengthen terms for the 
most dangerous criminals while creating community-based options for 
nonviolent offenders, reinventing the state's disastrously 
inefficient parole system and expanding prison-based drug 
rehabilitation and job-training programs.

A year later, the Legislature has acted on none of those 
recommendations. Its sole accomplishment on corrections was to 
approve $7.9 billion in new prison and jail construction. Kelso's 
order demonstrates the inadequacy of this strategy: His call for $7 
billion in bonds comes on top of what the Legislature has approved, 
and all this construction still may not satisfy a separate 
three-judge panel that is considering the overcrowding crisis and 
could order further spending. We simply cannot build our way out of 
this problem, especially because all these new facilities will add 
crushing operational expenses to future state budgets.

The only solution is to cut the prison population by implementing 
reforms such as those suggested by the Little Hoover Commission. And 
lawmakers might want to get on with it before they get hit with 
another whopping bill from the federal justice system. Delay and 
inaction have gotten us to this point; only the courage to act on 
these proposals will get us out. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake