Indeed, Bob Sillen made strides during the 18 months he was in place, but he said it was at least a 10-year process and that change would not come cheaply. Unfortunately, it wasn't until a state audit was published last week, shortly after Mr. Sillen's dismissal from office, that it became clear just how much taxpayers were shelling out for those services.

His salary was public record from the beginning. Most Californians would be happy to earn in one year the $52,000 he earned monthly. Still, if you get what you pay for, the cost could be justified, because he was saving California millions. Right? […] Still, it is disappointing that Mr. Sillen has been unavailable for comment since the audit was released. He was never at a loss for words before. He owes the public an explanation and an apology.

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…

A federal judge Wednesday abruptly fired the man he had appointed to fix the multimillion-dollar problems of medical care in the state's prisons, after determining the effort was moving too slowly and in too confrontational a manner. […] In an interview Wednesday, Kelso said Sillen had created a set of plans "that were so voluminous that it was very difficult for people to get their arms around them." He said he would craft a "strategic business plan" in an effort to return prison medical care to state control within four years…

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson on Wednesday removed Robert Sillen as the federal receiver who oversees medical care for California's prison system. Sillen will be replaced by McGeorge School of Law professor J. Clark Kelso. In his seven-page order, Henderson said the receivership needs to move from what has been primarily "an investigative and evaluative phase" toward a system that "must ultimately be transitioned back to the state of California's control…

Sillen's court-ordered intervention is just one reason California's prison spending has far outpaced the swelling number of inmates, contributing to the state's projected $14-billion budget gap, which would be the worst since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's election in 2003…