February 8, 2009
California prison medical czar offers cheaper plans
Saying he was "cognizant" of the state's budget woes, California's prison medical czar offered policymakers some cheaper alternatives Friday to his $8 billion plan to achieve a constitutional level of inmate health care.
But state Attorney General Jerry Brown, who has emerged as the chief nemesis of federal receiver J. Clark Kelso's plans, denounced the new options as "flimflam." California corrections chief Matthew Cate said the receiver's plans need more analysis and overstate how many more medical beds the state really needs.
Kelso's cheapest plan offered Friday would cost $2.5 billion and provide 5,000 beds for medically impaired prisoners – not the psychiatric cases – at existing prisons. It would cost $480 million a year to operate, or $96,000 per inmate…
LINK - SacBee.com
