COSTLY PRISON HEALTHCARE

Because the Legislature Wouldn't Fix the Inmate Medical System, the
State Is Facing a $7-Billion Bill.

California's leaders are faced with the job of under-funding the
state's already struggling schools and cutting services to the poor
because of a chronic budget shortfall, exacerbated by the weak
economy. But on the bright side, we stand to get a whole bunch of
gleaming new prison buildings.

The federal receiver in charge of the state's prison healthcare
system has requested $7 billion to pay for seven new facilities for
chronically sick or mentally ill inmates. The Legislature will have
little choice but to go along because the receiver, J. Clark Kelso,
is backed by the power of the federal bench, which can order the
state to spend the money. This comes at a time when the shortfall has
been projected at up to $16.5 billion, though it has since been
reduced through borrowing and budget cuts.

Lawmakers are crying foul about the added burden on the budget, even
though they have no one but themselves to blame. A prison crisis that
combines overcrowding, a negligent healthcare program and a crumbling
juvenile justice system has been worseningfor three decades, during
which time dozens of studies have chronicled the problems and pointed
the way to solving them. The reports are now gathering dust on a
shelf somewhere, ignored by lawmakers. Indeed, legislators and the
electorate have decisively made matters worse by approving
get-tough-on-crime initiatives that further cram prisons and do
nothing to address conditions inside.

One of the latest studies, released in January 2007 by the
independent state oversight agency known as the Little Hoover
Commission, is a model of the form. It practically shrieked at
lawmakers to implement the needed reforms, which include creating an
independent sentencing commission that could lengthen terms for the
most dangerous criminals while creating community-based options for
nonviolent offenders, reinventing the state's disastrously
inefficient parole system and expanding prison-based drug
rehabilitation and job-training programs.

A year later, the Legislature has acted on none of those
recommendations. Its sole accomplishment on corrections was to
approve $7.9 billion in new prison and jail construction. Kelso's
order demonstrates the inadequacy of this strategy: His call for $7
billion in bonds comes on top of what the Legislature has approved,
and all this construction still may not satisfy a separate
three-judge panel that is considering the overcrowding crisis and
could order further spending. We simply cannot build our way out of
this problem, especially because all these new facilities will add
crushing operational expenses to future state budgets.

The only solution is to cut the prison population by implementing
reforms such as those suggested by the Little Hoover Commission. And
lawmakers might want to get on with it before they get hit with
another whopping bill from the federal justice system. Delay and
inaction have gotten us to this point; only the courage to act on
these proposals will get us out.