The California prison health care system has gotten so bad that a federal judge has had enough. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson placed the state penal health system under a receiver saying that 'extreme measures' were needed to fix the failing health care system.
Judge Henderson said that some state officials have 'good intentions' but that sick prisoners continue to die in California jails 'for no acceptable reason.' The judge also indicated he would issue a written order outlining the terms and conditions of the receivership.
The prison system in California is quite large. There are 163,000 prisoners now in California jails and the health system has a budget of $1.1 billion and approximately 6,000 employees.
The decision is not without precedent. In 1995, the District of Columbia's prisons were assigned to a receiver for a five-year period. The D.C. jails are much smaller, holding only 1,700 inmates.
The federal court will now determine all of the care inmates in California are to receive including the number of nurses on duty per shift and how inmates that need treatment in local hospitals will be treated.
Henderson said that anyone 'would have to be shocked, as I certainly was' that a prisoner dies once a week in California prisons due to incompetent or inadequate care.
Evidence about the poor quality of care was frightening. In one case, an inmate at Pleasant Valley State Prison near Bakersfield who needed a colonoscopy waited nearly a year and then could not undergo the test because his 'mass was so large, the scope could not be passed through,' according to a written summary of testimony given to the judge.
In another case, an inmate became paralyzed after getting into a fight. The doctor treating him said he was faking the injury and stuck needles in his legs. Medical experts were not sure if the man was paralyzed by the injuries suffered in the fight or if the misguided efforts of the doctor.
Judge Henderson admitted that this was 'the most extreme measure available' to him but added, 'this court has tried to use lesser measures, and all agree that those lesser measures have failed.'
Thousands of inmates in California and their families hope this is the beginning of much needed changes.
