On Thursday, the court-appointed receiver for California's prison health care system signed construction design documents to commit the state to spending $2.5 billion on three new health care facilities for inmates with chronic medical and mental health conditions, the Ventura County Star reports.

J. Clark Kelso was appointed by Federal District Court Judge Thelton Henderson to bring the state's prison health care system up to constitutional standards after a class action lawsuit found that state officials failed to improve conditions at the facilities…

Saying it is time for "state leaders to face their constitutional obligations," federal receiver J. Clark Kelso on Thursday asked a judge to give him authority to inspect the state's financial accounts in anticipation of having to seize the cash he needs to build seven new prison healthcare facilities.

Kelso, who is in charge of a court-ordered effort to fix a prison healthcare system that District Court Judge Thelton Henderson ruled in 2005 was "broken beyond repair," filed a motion asking Henderson to add Controller John Chiang to the list of defendants and to give the receiver access to the controller's internal records.

With the state facing a potential cash-flow crisis if a budget is not adopted by the end of July, Chiang this week intimated there might not be enough money available to satisfy Kelso's request even with a court order…

The removal of Robert Sillen as the federal court-ordered prison health care 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 health care. The prison health care receiver and the three-judge panel are separate, but intertwined, legal actions. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, who created the receivership, also sits on the three-judge panel…

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…

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…