Federal Receiver
May 18, 2012
Why is the Federal Receiver for prison medical care $300 million over budget?
According to figures from the Legislative Analyst's Office, the Federal Receiver in charge of California's prison medical care is running $295.4 million over-budget in the current fiscal year.
The receivership — essentially an outside individual hired by the federal court to bring the state into compliance with the Constitution--has been in place since 2005. Receiver Clark Kelso, in the job since 2008, is tasked with updating and improving the prison system's medical care. His annual budget runs at about $1.5 billion — meaning he's currently about 20 percent over.
California Correctional Health Care Services Spokeswoman Nancy Kincaid says that it's not so much that the department is over-budget, as that it was under-funded to begin with. "We've never been funded to the level we've needed to be," she says. Kincaid says the department has prioritized keeping care costs down, while trying to bring a massive system into compliance with court orders...
LINK - SCPR.org
June 14, 2011
Thousands of new prison hospital beds needed, says Fed. receiver Kelso
The federal court-appointed receiver who oversees medical care in California's prison system said in a report Tuesday that the state still needs thousands of new prison hospital beds even as Gov. Jerry Brown proposes transferring responsibility for tens of thousands of convicts to local governments.
Even if Brown's proposal is approved, the state would need to build a $906 million, 1,722-bed medical center in Stockton, along with other facilities, because the most seriously ill inmates would remain in state custody, the report projects.
Poor treatment of physically and mentally ill inmates led the U.S. Supreme Court last month to uphold a federal court decision ordering California to reduce its prison population by about 33,000 inmates over the next two years...
LINK - MercuryNews.com
January 27, 2011
Lawmakers express frustration over excessive outlays for prison health
Amid California's budget crisis, the receiver put in charge of the prison health system by a federal judge has spent $82 million on blueprints for medical facilities that have been largely scrapped, more than $50,000 a month on an architectural consultant and millions hiring medical professionals — more per inmate than in many other states.
After four years of pouring money into the system, however, receiver J. Clark Kelso told legislators Wednesday that he didn't know when the federal oversight might stop and suggested early release of chronically sick inmates as one quick way to cut costs.
Exasperated lawmakers, who have to pay the bills but have little say in how the funds are spent, questioned whether federal control is making prison healthcare any better...
LINK - LATimes.com
May 1, 2010
California can’t ditch prison medical receiver, court says
A federal appellate court on Friday rejected the Schwarzenegger administration's attempt to rid itself of the court-appointed receiver charged with bringing prison medical care up to a constitutional standard.
The record of the protracted class action lawsuit supports the trial judge's ruling that, contrary to the administration's argument, appointment of a receiver goes "no further than necessary to correct the constitutional violations, and was the least intrusive means," a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared.
"The state to this day has not pointed to any evidence that it could remedy its constitutional violations in the absence of the receivership," the judges said...
LINK - SacBee.com
April 10, 2010
Tentative prison deal in Stockton
Local leaders reached a tentative agreement Friday with state corrections officials and prison health care receiver J. Clark Kelso to build an inmate medical facility southeast of Stockton.
The settlement ends nearly six months of tense negotiations and resolves a lawsuit over the 1,722-bed prison for physically and mentally ill prisoners. Once built it will be called the California Medical Facility, Stockton.
"There's been lots of animosity and hard feelings, but in the end I think everybody wins," San Joaquin County Supervisor Leroy Ornellas said. "That's good news..."
LINK - Recordnet.com
February 4, 2010
Federal Receiver J. Clark Kelso on prisons, privatization
J. Clark Kelso has a long history as a "fix-it" man in state government. In his latest assignment, as the federal receiver in charge of prison health care, he's been tasked with fixing a system so dysfunctional it's become a national symbol of what's wrong with corrections.
But the McGeorge Law School professor also has a long academic career under his belt. And it is in his role as a legal expert that we can find clues to his performance as a powerful prison overseer.
In his many years of writings for academic journals and also opining on legislation, a portrait emerges of a man with clear ideas about how we got into our current mess — and how we might get out of it. He has also shown a willingness to offer opinions that put him at odds with some of the most powerful institutions in the state, including judges, the Department of Corrections and the powerful state prison guards' union…
LINK - Capitolweekly.net
January 2, 2010
Local woman helps defeat planned prison in Camarillo
Like many Camarillo residents, Kathleen Miller was shocked when she first heard officials were eyeing her city as the future site for a prison hospital.
J. Clark Kelso, appointed by a federal court in 2005 to oversee inmate healthcare across the state, introduced a proposal in May 2008 that included tearing down the California Youth Authority facility on Wright Road and constructing a 1,500-bed prison hospital in its place.
The federal receiver's plan bewildered and angered many Camarillo and Ventura County residents, including Miller…
LINK - VCStar.com
December 15, 2009
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
December 15, 2009
Mike Machado, John Garamendi Jr. hired to promote Stockton prison hospital
With a lawsuit pending against the state, a former state legislator from Linden and the son of Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, have been hired to tell the community why a large prison hospital would be good for the county.
Mike Machado, who represented much of San Joaquin County in the Assembly and State Senate in the 1990s and the current decade, and John Garamendi Jr., were hired for the lobbying positions. They began work on Monday.
Machado, Garamendi and three other members of the Ochoa & Moore law firm in Sacramento will try to convince people in San Joaquin County that the prison hospital would be an asset rather than a liability…
LINK - LodiNews.com
December 14, 2009
Spending spree in CDCR/Fed Reciever - nurses paid $393 per hour?
Anna Marie Antonio, a nurse practitioner who has worked at the California Medical Facility prison in Vacaville, is golden.
Antonio may be a superb clinician. But her sparkle lies in payments for her services by the court-appointed receiver who manages health care in California's prisons. Antonio's temporary employment agency, or registry, collected $393 per hour for her work – more than six times the average paid to state employees for the same work.
When Antonio learned of the rate from a reporter, she gasped: "Wow!"…
LINK - SacBee.com
November 27, 2009
Fed receiver Kelso seeks to move Stockton’s prison expansion lawsuit to federal court
Prison health-care receiver J. Clark Kelso has filed a notice to move a lawsuit filed against him over a proposed inmate medical center near Stockton to federal court in Sacramento.
The move drew criticism from local leaders as being "intellectually dishonest in the extreme."
The Stockton Greater Chamber of Commerce, city of Stockton and San Joaquin County filed suit in the San Joaquin County Superior Court on Nov. 17 in an attempt to force millions of dollars in concessions from the state…
LINK - Recordnet.com
October 21, 2009
Prison hospital to be built in Stockton
A major prison hospital, housing up to 1,734 inmates, is to be built in Stockton on the site of the currently abandoned Karl Holton Youth Correctional Facility that is on the grounds of the Northern California Youth Correctional Center.
Construction of the sub acute medical and mental health care facility is expected to cost $1.1 billion, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Work on the project is expected to begin next year, with completion in about 24 months. During the seven-month peak construction period, construction activities would require up to 1,700 construction workers per day…
LINK - CentralValleyBusinessTimes.com
For those of you interested in the math:
Proposed cost: $1,100,000,000
Proposed number of beds: 1,734
Cost per bed: $634,371.39 ($1,100,000,000 ÷ 1,734 = $634,371.39)
Really?
September 27, 2009
One prison expansion off; two moving forward
The state has called off an expansion of Tehachapi's state prison to relieve overcrowding but still plans to add onto prisons in Wasco and Delano.
State and federal officials determined that some Assembly Bill 900 funds identified for infill beds need to be spent on healthcare beds instead, said Deborah Hysen, chief deputy secretary of facility planning, construction and management at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The federal courts have mandated that California bring medical care in prisons up to constitutional standards. A receiver is overseeing the work…
LINK - Bakersfield.com
September 17, 2009
State wants control over inmates’ health care
A state lawyer argued Wednesday that California should regain control of its prison health care system, saying a federal judge had no authority to appoint a receiver to run inmates' treatment in 2006.
The argument drew a skeptical response from a federal appeals judge, who noted that California has argued before a different court that there was no need to reduce the prison population to improve health care because the receiver was in charge of the system.
Judge Michael Hawkins of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also noted that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration didn't object in 2005 when the judge hearing the prison health case, Thelton Henderson, announced plans to remove the medical system from state control and turn it over to a receiver as a last resort to meet constitutional standards…
LINK - SFGate.com
August 11, 2009
Prison medical czar will slash rates paid to outside hospitals
The man in charge of improving California's prison medical care plans to slash the rate the state pays to treat inmates. The plan could save the state $50 million this year. But as KPCC's Julie Small reports, it could also discourage hospitals from providing care that prison hospitals can't.
Julie Small: California prisons aren't able to treat inmates with chronic illnesses or inmates in need of special care, so they send them to hospitals for treatment. But Clark Kelso, the federal receiver in charge of prison medical care, says that's grown too costly for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Clark Kelso: For quite a period of time, CDCR has paid rates that have basically subsidized various hospitals' bottom line, and the state just can't afford it anymore…
LINK - SCPR.org
July 9, 2009
Newspaper slams CDCR & Gov over prison crisis
Considering the shameful foot-dragging that California has already demonstrated when it comes to fulfilling a federal court order to improve health and mental health care for prison inmates, the governor's recent rejection of a plan to build two prison hospitals should come as no surprise.
The plan, hammered out by federal court-appointed receiver J. Clark Kelso and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matthew Cate, seemed workable when it was announced last month. It called for building two prison hospitals — one in Northern California, the other in Southern California — to house 3,400 inmates. The $1.9 billion price tag would be paid from already-approved bonds designated for prison construction.
The plan was pared significantly from an $8 billion attention-getting proposal put forth by the receiver, who for months couldn't even get prison officials to sit down and talk with him about what was needed. The ploy worked, and the two-hospital solution was the result…
LINK - TheReporter.com
June 25, 2009
Schwarzenegger rejects inmate health care plan
The Schwarzenegger administration has rejected a plan designed to end years of litigation over inmate medical care in California's prison system.
In a letter obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate tells a court-appointed receiver that the state cannot afford the $1.9 billion fix.
It cites legislation signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007 that provides about $8 billion for prison construction, including $1 billion dedicated to health care improvements…
LINK - ChicoER.com (Chico Enterprise-Record)
June 24, 2009
State gets cheaper prison doctors
California's "prison czar," Federal Receiver J. Clark Kelso, says he's hammered out new deals to get physicians for the state's prisons at a cheaper rate — $201.50 an hour.
That compares to previous contracts that had California taxpayers shelling out as much as $414 an hour for a physician, he says.
Two of the three new contracts are between California Prison Health Care Services and their largest physician registry providers — NOAH Inc. and Registry of Physician Specialist Inc. The third is with South Shores Medical Group Inc., which is also expected to be one of the largest providers in the coming year…
LINK - CentralValleyBusinessTimes.com
June 23, 2009
Plenty of waste still could be cut out of prison system
What happens when ordinary citizens use a newspaper column to expose at least $100 million, and possibly much more, in government waste at a time when critical state services are being cut because of the most serious cash crunch in generations?
Not very much, at least not yet.
Almost precisely six months ago, readers through this column alerted the court-appointed receiver who runs California's prison health care system to several areas where big money was being wasted in his bailiwick.
"We paid attention, we knew you'd follow up," said the receiver, University of Pacific law professor Clark Kelso. "We've made some changes and we're going to make others. But we've also had some problems…"
LINK - MercuryNews.com
May 28, 2009
CDCR cuts deal with fed receiver to build 3,400 more beds (while pursuing layoffs?)
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…
LINK - SacBee.com
April 11, 2009
Correctional Training Facility in Soledad ranks fifth worst in California for prison health care
The two prisons stand smack in the middle of the Salinas Valley, separated by just 6 miles of fertile farmland.
AdvertisementBut when it comes to the condition of their health-care facilities, the lockups are worlds apart, a state analysis shows.
Of California's 33 prisons, the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad is the fifth most in need of immediate health-care-facility upgrades, according to the California Prison Health Care Receivership…
LINK - TheCalifornian.com
March 25, 2009
Editorial: State prisons need federal oversight
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other California officials should stop trying to fight the federal courts over management of the state's deeply troubled prison system and the dysfunctional health care operation within the prisons.
The energy spent on trying to get federal Judge Thelton Henderson to back off would be better spent working with him to fix the problems that caught the bench's attention in the first place.
Lawyers for the governor argued unsuccessfully again this week that the state is capable of running the health care system on its own, despite considerable evidence to the contrary. The California Department of Corrections, under a succession of governors and directors, has proved itself virtually oblivious to guidance from the outside, but also incapable of reform from within…
LINK - MontereyHerald.com
March 25, 2009
Judge threatens Calif. officials with contempt
A federal judge is threatening to hold Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration in contempt if they don't quickly come up with a plan to take care of thousands of mentally ill inmates.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton in Sacramento says he is appalled by evidence the state is not capable of doing its duty.
He called it "mind-boggling" that the state still doesn't have a mental health treatment plan 14 years after a class-action lawsuit was first filed on behalf of inmates…
LINK - SFGate.com
March 24, 2009
Judge Retains Prison Receivership, State to Appeal
A federal judge in San Francisco today turned down a bid by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to end a court-supervised receivership of the state's prison health care system.
U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson said he had no confidence that improvements in prison health care would continue if he returned control of prison health care to the state.
The judge said in a 24-page ruling that he attributed the vast majority of improvements in the past several years to the receivership…
LINK - CBS5.com
March 12, 2009
3 aides to Calif prison receiver quit
The top three aides to California's embattled court-appointed prison receiver have abruptly quit. An e-mail obtained Thursday by The Associated Press from the trio to the receiver's staff and outside attorneys says the three are leaving "effective immediately."
The resignations come five days before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration asks a federal judge to end the receivership, which controls medical care in the state's 33 adult prisons.
Chief of Staff John Hagar, his assistant Steve Weston and Terry Hill, the chief medical officer, cite "irreconcilable differences" over the "new direction of the receivership" under receiver J. Clark Kelso. Kelso took over a year ago…
LINK - MercuryNews.com
February 7, 2009
Camarillo may be dropped as prison health site
Prison healthcare receiver J. Clark Kelso today submitted three construction options to the federal court — including a pared-down plan that would eliminate the possibility of building a prison healthcare facility in Camarillo.
The least expansive option proposes just three facilities with a combined 5,000 beds exclusively for inmates with medical needs.
Kelso is asking the courts to convene hearings to take comments from state officials and plaintiffs representing inmates…
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
February 3, 2009
Doubt cast on need for Camarillo prison hospital
In a cost-cutting move that could affect plans for a prison hospital near Camarillo, federal receiver J. Clark Kelso said Tuesday he will present a number of recommendations to the court and state, including eliminating mental health care from proposed prison facilities.
The change would drive down the number of proposed prison hospitals statewide from seven to three. The hospital slated for land outside Camarillo is fourth or fifth on the list.
Kelso disclosed the recommendations amid ongoing criticism by state Attorney General Jerry Brown and the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over building prisoner facilities that would include therapy rooms, basketball courts and landscaping…
LINK - Ventura County Star
February 1, 2009
Chino awaits judge’s ruling for prison hospital plans
State officials are awaiting a judge's ruling in their suit seeking an end to the federal receivership overseeing state prison health care and its construction program.
That program includes plans to build a large new prison hospital in Chino, which local officials and residents have opposed.
The attorney general, on behalf of the governor and the state Department of Corrections, filed a motion in U.S. District Court last week asking a court to remove the receiver who has "simply gone too far" in proposing expensive changes to the system…
LINK - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
February 1, 2009
California’s Health Care for Inmates: Prison or Versailles?
Of course California's prison inmates are entitled to reasonable 21st-century health care. Unfortunately for taxpayers, Clark Kelso, the federal receiver in charge of California's prison health care has, as state Attorney General Jerry Brown noted at a news conference last week, a "gold-plated wish list" for California's prison health care system.
His Receivership wants to spend $8 billion to build seven new hospitals, each the size of 10 Wal-Marts, which would create "a holistic environment," with "music therapy, art therapy and other recreation therapy functions," a music room, stress-reduction room, game room and "therapy kitchen," with lots of natural light and high ceilings. A gymnasium would feature a "full-size high school playing court with basketball hoops and built-in edge seating up to four rows deep. Various floor striping allows for other games, such as volleyball, etc. Other sport activities include handball courts, exercise, and (a) workout room…"
LINK - NationalLedger.com
January 29, 2009
California Asks Removal of Prison Overseer
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state attorney general, Jerry Brown, filed a motion on Wednesday in Federal District Court here to remove the receiver charged with overhauling California's decrepit prison health care system.
The motion comes on the heels of a demand by the receiver, J. Clark Kelso, for $8 billion from the state to build seven new prison health care centers with 10,000 beds for inmates. The motion seeks to halt construction plans and begin moving control of prison health care back to the state.
"What the receiver has become is a parallel government, operating virtually in secret, not accountable, not subject to public scrutiny," Mr. Brown said at a news conference on Wednesday. Mr. Kelso, he said, "feels he has unchecked authority to ride roughshod over the State of California and its officials…"
LINK - NYTimes.com
January 22, 2009
Audit: Calif prison receiver gave no-bid contracts
Auditors say the office overseeing California's prison medical system made nearly $27 million in technology purchases without competitive bidding, violating state law.
The purchases were made under a former receiver and an information officer who have since been replaced.
Examiners with the Bureau of State Audits found that former employees made 49 no-bid purchases and signed a service contract with the same information technology company in 2007 and 2008…
LINK - ContraCostaTimes.com
December 10, 2008
Receiver ignores valid concerns, pushes ahead
Re: J. Clark Kelso's Dec. 3 commentary, "Federal receiver responds to prison hospital concerns":
Kelso's commentary ignores the legitimate concerns of Ventura County residents and attempts to gloss over the valid reasons why the Camarillo site is inappropriate for 1,500 state prisoners.
Kelso explains that hiring medical staff is impractical in remote regions, so his priority is to place facilities where "highly educated, trained and skilled staff are already available…"
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
December 10, 2008
Overcrowding brings fear of early release for inmates
Residents and local leaders have expressed concern about the possibility that nearly a third of California's inmates could be released in order to deal with prison overcrowding.
In a lawsuit brought on behalf of sick and mentally ill inmates, three federal judges in San Francisco are considering whether to release thousands of inmates early because the overcrowding has led to unconstitutional conditions.
Attorneys for inmates want the state's prison population reduced from 156,300 to 110,000…
LINK - ContraCostaTimes.com
December 3, 2008
Editorial: Federal receiver responds to prison hospital concerns
As many of you are aware, the state of California has failed at every level for the past 20-plus years to address sorely lacking disease control that is hazardous to the public and the grossly inhumane conditions arising from substandard healthcare in its prisons. Because of this failure, a federal judge took the extraordinary measure of taking charge of the broken healthcare system and appointed a receiver to fix it. It is important to note that the state of California — the governor and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation — agreed with all of the plans and decisions made by the federal judge in establishing the receivership.
In an effort to fix the system, we are working to site and build up to seven new correctional healthcare facilities around California. Due to the availability of underutilized state-owned property and proximity to urban areas, the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility is currently under consideration for one of these facilities…
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
November 15, 2008
Editorial: Outside prison bid just a stall tactic
A NEW PLAYER has surfaced in the ongoing saga dealing with California's broken prison inmate health-care system, the GEO Group Inc. of Florida. Just who is GEO Group? Some believe this is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's best chance for a great escape from federal courts, but we believe otherwise.
GEO Group is a private company that manages various prisons throughout the U.S. and other countries. The company has been lobbying the governor's office and the state Legislature since January, spending more than $300,000, with hopes of taking over California's prison system, and thus, giving the state a possible way out from a federal court mandate.
That mandate, which is currently being fought in court, could force California to pay $8 billion to clean up its inmate health care system. As a side note, the Florida firm contributed $50,000 last month to the Proposition 11 campaign, the redistricting initiative backed by Schwarzenegger…
LINK - ContraCostaTimes.com
November 11, 2008
Firm bids to run Calif. inmate medical system
A private prison company that has been lobbying the Schwarzenegger administration and is a campaign contributor to the governor's causes has made a bid to operate an overhauled inmate medical system, a move that could conflict with court-ordered reforms, according to a document obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
The offer by The GEO Group Inc. of Florida caught the court-appointed receiver overseeing reform of California's inmate health care system by surprise.
In the five-page internal memo obtained by the AP, the receiver's chief of staff repeatedly makes it clear that he believes the bid was solicited by the Schwarzenegger administration and questions the administration's motives…
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (The San Diego Union-Tribune)
November 3, 2008
Group protests prison hospital proposal
Signs protesting a Ventura County prison hospital lined a Camarillo park Sunday, where members of a community group handed out fliers and answered questions about a proposal they say would change the quality of life in the county.
The proposal calls for converting the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility into a 1,500-bed adult prison healthcare facility. The facility for inmates with chronic medical and mental health problems is one of seven that court-appointed Receiver J. Clark Kelso envisions around the state as part of the effort to restore healthcare in California prisons to constitutional standards.
Members of the community-based Prison Hospital Action Committee, however, say the plan would undermine the county's medical system, lower home prices and threaten safety, among other consequences…
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
October 28, 2008
Judge sets deadline for prison payment
Federal District Court Judge Thelton Henderson on Monday ordered state officials to pay $250 million toward construction of new prison healthcare facilities by Nov. 5.
If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger or Controller John Chiang do not comply, Henderson scheduled a Nov. 12 hearing in his San Francisco courtroom at which they would have to show cause why they should not be held in contempt of court. If they are held in contempt of court, they could face fines of up to $3 million a day.
The order followed a hearing earlier in the day at which Assistant Attorney General Daniel Powell argued the court does not have the authority to "simply seize that money…"
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
October 9, 2008
S.J. to meet on prison care overhaul
U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson on Wednesday ordered state officials to explain in a hearing later this month how and when they will give federal prison health care receiver J. Clark Kelso $250 million.
The San Francisco judge's order came as San Joaquin County officials announced an upcoming meeting with Kelso's staff to open a direct dialogue with the receiver's office about how his plans could hurt the local community's health care services.
Kelso seeks a total of $8 billion to build seven inmate medical centers to care for 10,000 mentally and physically ill state prisoners. Kelso plans to build the first 1,500-bed medical center southeast of Stockton…
LINK - Recordnet.com (The Record)
October 9, 2008
Judge sets hearing on funding for California prison medical care
A federal judge Wednesday gave state officials nearly three weeks to explain how they will transfer $250 million to the overseer of medical care in state prisons.
In his order, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson stopped short of finding Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California Controller John Chiang in contempt of court for refusing to turn over a total of $8 billion for new prison medical facilities sought by the overseer, J. Clark Kelso.
"This is an opportunity for the state to bring itself into partial compliance," Kelso said in an interview. "It obviously leaves a big chunk of the remaining funding unresolved. We're going to take this a step at a time…"
LINK - LATimes.com (The Los Angeles Times)
October 8, 2008
Hearing Set for State to Start Funding Prison Projects
A U.S. District Court judge is giving the state a few more weeks to determine how to make a $250 million down payment on prison health care projects.
The money was approved under Assembly Bill 900.
The court-appointed receiver for improving how state prisons provide health care to inmates, J. Clark Kelso, is also seeking a contempt citation against Gov. Schwarzenegger and State Controller John Chiang for failure to pay $8 billion earmarked for prison construction projects…
LINK - News10.net
October 7, 2008
Judge demands $250 million from California, stat
A federal judge seemed ready to order Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Controller John Chiang to cough up $250 million in the next few weeks for prison health care construction.
But Senior U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson isn't quite ready to hold the governor and controller in contempt of court, a move that could put California on the hook for millions of dollars in fines per day until state officials do the judge's bidding.
Henderson said the $8 billion price tag that his appointed receiver, J. Clark Kelso, has placed on construction required to bring the state's long-addled prison health care system up to constitutional snuff is "the best approximation that anyone can make at this time," and his orders have been clear that the state must pick up this tab…
LINK - InsideBayArea.com
October 7, 2008
Judge: Calif. must pay for prison health care
A federal judge has scolded California officials for failing to provide the billions of dollars a court-appointed receiver says is needed to upgrade the state's prison health care system.
U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson made it clear Monday he expects California to pay $8 billion for seven new inmate medical facilities. But he stopped short of immediately holding Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Controller John Chiang in contempt for failing to turn over the money.
Medical care in California's prisons is so bad it has been ruled unconstitutional. Henderson appointed a receiver to run the prison medical system after finding that an average of an inmate a week was dying from neglect or malpractice…
LINK - AP.Google.com (Associated Press/Google)
October 6, 2008
Federal prison receiver argues for $8 billion
A federal receiver seeking $8 billion to bring California's prison health care up to constitutional standards brought his case to a federal judge in San Francisco today.
Receiver J. Clark Kelso asked U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson to hold Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Controller John Chiang in contempt if they didn't give Kelso the money. Kelso wants to build inmate medical centers, with the first such facility scheduled to be built just southeast of Stockton…
LINK - Recordnet.com (The Record)
October 6, 2008
Medical reform in Calif. prisons heads to court
With California struggling to pay its bills and facing another deficit, the receiver in charge of the state's inmate medical care will argue Monday for the right to take $8 billion from the state treasury.
The federal court hearing in San Francisco is one of two legal challenges weighing heavily on the California corrections department. In the other, a panel of three federal judges must decide whether to cap the state's inmate population to solve overcrowding.
Addressing both will be expensive. In addition to the billions for medical beds, the state has approved a $7.4 billion construction plan to add more space and relieve crowded prison conditions, although the program has been delayed amid partisan bickering in Sacramento…
LINK - SFGate.com (The San Francisco Gate)
October 4, 2008
Kelso to tell judge funds to build are not provided
Federal Prison Receiver J. Clark Kelso on Monday will ask the judge who appointed him to hold Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Controller John Chiang in contempt for failing to provide the funding needed to build prison healthcare facilities.
Kelso has devised an $8 billion "turnaround plan" that calls for the construction of seven stand-alone facilities that will provide medical and mental health care to about 10,000 inmates with chronic diseases. These facilities, he says, are necessary to bring California's prison healthcare system up to standards that do not violate the Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment…
LINK - VenturaCountyStar.com
September 23, 2008
Dwindling reserve?
A new state budget that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to sign Tuesday, ending a record 85-day deadlock, has a skimpy reserve that is already under attack.
The general fund that pays for most programs spends $104.3 billion in the new fiscal year that began July 1. It's backed by a reserve of $800 million, which approaches a record of another kind — smallest amount set aside, proportionately, for unexpected costs.
A court-appointed receiver placed in charge of health care in the state's troubled prison system said today that he will suggest that a federal court compel the state to spend $250 million on a stalled improvement program…
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
September 22, 2008
Prison health care receiver, state officials spar over $8 billion
Feuding flared up Monday between state officials and the federally appointed receiver who proposes bringing California prison health care up to constitutional standards by building seven inmate medical centers, starting with one near Stockton.
Prison health care receiver J. Clark Kelso filed court papers in advance of an Oct. 6 hearing in San Francisco before U.S. District Thelton Henderson, who appointed Kelso. Kelso seeks $8 billion to build a total of 10,000 medical and mental health beds.
The first of the medical centers statewide is planned for the plot of land occupied by the shuttered Karl Holton Youth Correctional Drug and Alcohol Treatment Facility southeast of Stockton…
LINK - Recordnet.com
September 15, 2008
Inmate death rate drops 30% in state prisons
The death rate of California prison inmates has dropped almost 30% since the beginning of 2006, a court-appointed monitor reported today.
J. Clark Kelso, the court-appointed receiver for inmate medical care, said the drop was an indication that his office is succeeding in reducing the number of preventable deaths in state prisons due to inadequate access to care, poor quality treatment and other factors.
In a report to U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, who is overseeing an inmate lawsuit, Kelso said about 204 inmates per 100,000 died in state prisons in the second quarter of 2008. That was down from about 291 deaths in the first quarter of 2006. Kelso did not say how many he thought could have been prevented…
LINK - LATimes.com Blog
August 28, 2008
“State must invest in prison health-care facilities” (by J. Clark Kelso)
Californians have always persevered. Even through tough emotional and economic times, our American values and a persistent sense of hope and humanity in the face of adversity have served as guiding principles. Now, once again, tough budget choices are spawning an emotional, hot-button debate over the following question: Why should the state spend billions of dollars to provide prisoners with access to basic health care when other important priorities also need funding? In answering this question, we must turn to our basic sense of what is right.
The U.S. Constitution protects every person in this country from cruel and unusual punishment. It is a time-honored value in all civilized and free societies, and yet, after years of litigation, three federal courts have independently found that the state of California consistently violates the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment by failing to provide even the most basic medical, mental health and dental care for its prison inmates. California can and must do better…
LINK - SFGate.com (The San Francisco Gate)
August 25, 2008
Opinion: “Why spend more on sick prisoners than on sick veterans?”
Court-appointed prison receiver — attorney Clark Kelso — has carte blanche to seize $8 billion of taxpayer money to build state-of-the-art medical facilities for prisoners. Does he not realize California is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy? Let's put this outrageous money grab for vicious convicts into proper perspective.
Kelso is trying to force California to spend 33 times more money on medical facilities for violent sexual predators, murderers and other criminals than the federal government spends annually in California on medical programs for veterans — the men and women who have risked their lives to keep this country free.
As a veteran, I find this unconscionable….
LINK - ModBee.com (The Modesto Bee)
August 6, 2008
Three top officials leaving Corrections Department
The top operations official in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has resigned to take a new job with the prison system's medical care receiver.
Corrections undersecretary in charge of operations Dave Runnels, a 26-year department veteran, will be joined in his departure from the upper ranks of California prison management by Wendy Still, the agency's leader on female inmate issues. Like Runnels, Still is headed over to the receiver's office.
A third upper-level corrections manager also is leaving the agency. Scott Carney, the deputy director of financial services, has resigned and will move to the Department of Health and Human Services…
LINK - SacBee.com (The Sacramento Bee)
July 3, 2008
Prison hospital receives no local support
Opponents say the proposed 1,500-bed, maximum-security prison hospital for criminally insane inmates would not only have a harmful effect on the local economy, but would be near residential neighborhoods.
"What we are saying is, put it where the impact to the community is minimized," explained Kathi Miller, one of the homeowners coordinating the effort. "This facility they're talking about is right next to a couple of schools."
Miller, who says hundreds of Camarillo residents have organized into committees to make their case to elected officials, emphasizes they are not strictly opposed to having the medical facility in Camarillo at all…
LINK - VCReporter.com (Ventura County Reporter)
June 20, 2008
Camarillo likely site for high-security medical facility
Plans to build a 100-acre high-security medical facility in Camarillo to house as many as 1,500 state prisoners has local officials and residents concerned not only about public safety issues but also about how the facility will affect the county's medical community.
"I'm very concerned about having a mental hospital filled with high-risk offenders in our community," said state Assemblymember Audra Strickland (RThousand Oaks). "It poses a substantial public safety risk."
A federal judge approved on Monday the plan by Federal Receiver J. Clark Kelso to build seven medical facilities throughout the state in order to improve healthcare for California inmates…
LINK - TheCamarilloAcorn.com
June 17, 2008
2 prison hospitals for S.J.?
Two new medical facilities for state prisoners could be built in San Joaquin County under plans announced Monday by the federal receiver tasked with fixing the state's broken inmate health care system.
If both are built in Stockton and Tracy, San Joaquin County's inmate population could rise by 3,000. Currently there are 3,833 adult inmates at Deuel Vocational Institution, a state prison near Tracy.
J. Clark Kelso wants to raze the vacant Karl Holton Youth Correctional Facility southeast of Stockton and build in its place a 1,500-bed medical center - one of seven statewide to treat inmates who are elderly or suffer from chronic mental or physical illness, Kelso said…
LINK - Recordnet.com
June 10, 2008
Prison overseer tells Calif. gov. he needs $7B
The court-appointed receiver who oversees medical care in California's prisons asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday to invoke his emergency powers to provide $7 billion to improve inmate care.
Court-appointed receiver J. Clark Kelso has been given broad authority by federal courts to fix the nation's largest state prison system's medical and mental health care, treatment so poor it has been ruled unconstitutional.
Kelso and the Legislature, however, have been unable to agree on where the funding to fix it should come from. The state Senate has blocked borrowing that Kelso says he needs to fix medical care for the state's more than 170,000 prisoners.
If the receiver doesn't get his way, a judge could order the money taken directly from the state treasury…
LINK - AP.Google.com (Associated Press)
June 3, 2008
Editorial: State Legislature, governor created mess with prisons
Legislators and the Schwarzenegger administration are playing a double game of dare with federal judges over how to fix the state's prisons. It's dangerous and expensive, and they're destined to lose. Probably they should, since lawmakers and prison managers have proved incapable of doing right on their own.
Last week, Senate Republicans twice thwarted a federal court-appointed overseer's request, which Schwarzenegger backs, for $7 billion in bond money to repair and build medical facilities for sick and mentally ill inmates. Having been denied, court receiver J. Clark Kelso is now vowing to seize a chunk of the money - $70 million now and $3.43 billion next year - out of the state's operating budget. That's not an idle threat; if carried out, such a move would raise the already disastrous projected deficit for next year to more than $18 billion.
Republican senators argue that it's premature to fork over the money while separate court-guided negotiations continue about reducing the prison population…
LINK - MercuryNews.com
May 25, 2008
California’s outsourcing of prison space comes under question
An inmate's death in Mississippi has raised concerns for California's prison medical czar about an arrangement to send thousands of prisoners to do their time out of state.
In a letter to the Corrections Corporation of America, receiver J. Clark Kelso's top aide said his office wants to talk to the firm about the "long-term viability" of its $115 million contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The company houses 3,904 California inmates on its out-of-state contract in six prisons located in Mississippi, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Arizona. California's deal with CCA calls for it to house nearly 8,000 prisoners over the next three years…
LINK - SacBee.com (The Sacramento Bee)
May 14, 2008
Reforms could add 2,000 beds at Deuel
TRACY - Under state prison reform plans, Deuel Vocational Institution, a medium-security facility near Tracy, might add 2,000 new beds, the prison's acting warden told a group of community leaders Tuesday.
Deuel's Steven Moore said part of a $7.7 billion prison reform bill signed into law one year ago could pay for construction of 500 new beds at the Tracy prison to relieve overcrowding.
Deuel also is being considered for a 1,500-bed medical center, he said.
The federal appointee overseeing California's prison health care system said the location of youth prisons south of Stockton also has been discussed for possible expansion and is even more likely to be picked for a regional medical center for adult inmates…
LINK - RecordNet.com
April 12, 2008
California prison czar seeks $7 billion more for inmate health care
California's prison medical czar and the governor's administration announced Friday they are asking the Legislature to approve $7 billion to improve prison medical care.
The proposal would pay for 10,500 health care beds and other facilities for inmate patients.
It comes less than a year after the Legislature approved and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a $7.9 billion measure to build space for 46,100 prison and jail beds, a package that included $1.14 billion for medical and mental health beds…
LINK - SacBee.com (Sacramento Bee)
March 16, 2008
Judge ‘in it for long haul’ on prison reform
The federal judge at the center of the controversy over prison conditions in California said Saturday that judicial pressure is needed to persuade officials to respect inmates' constitutional rights.
"Correctional defendants are particularly resistant to courts ordering change," U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco said at a conference on penal reform at the University of San Francisco. "Prison personnel can be experts at the waiting game. I'm not going away. I'm here for the long haul."
LINK - SFGate.com (San Francisco Chronicle)
March 13, 2008
Must Read: “Machado grills analyst on prison budget”
State Sen. Mike Machado laid it on pretty thick today in questioning a representative of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger about the administration's budget proposals on prisons.
"You have given us a very incomplete proposal," Machado, D-Linden, told Department of Finance principal program analyst Jennifer Osborn at a budget subcommittee hearing on prison spending. "It's very hard for us to believe the governor is serious about this proposal."
Machado focused his questioning on Schwarzenegger's proposal to grant early releases to 22,000 inmates at the same time it's trying to expand prison capacity by 53,000 beds. Osborn, for the most part, was at a loss for words and wound up leaving the hearing in tears.
LINK - SacBee.com (The Sacramento Bee)
March 13, 2008
Union decries increasing number of outsourced IT contracts for state of California
The number of information technology contracts awarded by the state of California has tripled since 2003, and the state could save up to $100 million annually by reducing its reliance on contractors, according to a new union study.
The report, titled "Too Many, Too Costly, Too Little Oversight," was compiled by the Service Employees International Union in preparation for a hearing today in the Legislature and based on information provided by the Department of General Services.
SEIU represents 7,800 state IT employees, 80 percent of whom work in the Sacramento region. The union is sponsoring AB 2603 by Assemblyman Mike Eng, D-Monterey Park, that would require state departments to report IT contract expenditures so that they could be compared to the cost of state employees doing the work…
LINK - SacBee.com (The Sacramento Bee)
March 6, 2008
New receiver: Fixing California prison medical care will cost plenty
Meet the new prison receiver. Same as the old receiver – in one key respect, anyway. He says fixing the prison medical care system isn't going to come cheap.
"Health care has been a decades-long underinvestment" in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's program, J. Clark Kelso said Wednesday in his first public speech since he was appointed to his job six weeks ago. "As receiver, I'm going to catch up."
Kelso, addressing an issues forum sponsored by the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, said he wants to ramp up spending quickly within existing processes in hope of avoiding a "constitutional confrontation" with the state.
LINK - SacBee.com
March 5, 2008
Medical czar: Fixing prison health system won’t come cheap
The state's new prison medical czar said Wednesday it's going to be expensive to provide constitutional care to California inmates and that he will not shy away from fighting to obtain the resources he needs to fix the system.
Receiver J. Clark Kelso did not put a price tag on his fix-it plan during his talk at an issues forum sponsored by the state correctional officers union, his first public appearance since taking over the job six weeks ago.
Kelso said he expects that negotiations with legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration will be "difficult" amid the current budget crisis, but added, "I have to be able to work in the context of existing political conditions."
LINK - SacBee.com (Sacramento Bee)
February 14, 2008
Wardens Await Final Word on Possible Inmates Release
A pair of local wardens is awaiting news of how their operations could be affected if a proposed early release of state-prison inmates comes about.
A target in a pair of lawsuits, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has been run by a federal court-appointed official called a receiver since 2006.
Each suit charges unconstitutional shortcomings in prison medical care because of overcrowding. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent budget-cut proposal includes 10 percent taken from the corrections-rehabilitation department…
LINK - FolsomTelegraph.com
January 29, 2008
Firing of Federal Receiver Sends Message of Cooperation
The removal of Robert Sillen as the federal court-ordered, prison healthcare receiver bodes well for negotiations with the three judge panel currently considering releasing thousands of inmates. His removal will only benefit all stakeholders who are working together to keep inmates off the street while creating a constitutional level of healthcare…
LINK - FlashReport.org
January 28, 2008
Judge’s Sudden Change of Receivers “Worrisome”
California's prison medical system is so broken that a federal judge took the drastic step of placing it in federal receivership. Judge Thelton Henderson appointed a receiver who began work in April 2006. The job was to reverse "entrenched paralysis and dysfunction and bring the delivery of health care in California prisons up to constitutional standards." Now, after 20 months, Henderson has abruptly changed receivers and called for a new "Plan of Action" for the prison health system…
LINK - ModBee.com
