Corrections Headlines

Sac Bee opines on prisons, budget, Kelso and CDCR

Whom should the public hold responsible for runaway overtime costs for prison health care?

The governor and California's dysfunctional Legislature are largely to blame, followed by a prison health care bureaucracy overseen by a federal receiver who has failed to protect taxpayers.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers consistently approve budgets that understate the true cost of prison health care, and therefore understate the numbers of nurses, nurse assistants, clinicians, doctors and others who are needed to provide the minimum care required under the state and U.S. constitutions. That in turn leads to the eye-popping overtime costs The Bee's Charles Piller documented in his recent report…

LINK - SacBee.com