CrisisID

Paying for the cost of prisoner’s health care has been debated since 1774, when the British parliament pasted the Health of Prisoners Act.  In the United States prisoners have a constitutional right to health care via the Eighth Amendment concerning cruel and unusual punishment.

As the result of a 2001 class action law suit (Plata v. Schwarzenegger) brought against the State of California over the quality of medical care in the state’s 33-prison system the California Prison Health Care Receivership was established to oversee the care. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson appointed Clark Kelso as “receiver” to administer prison health care. For 2009 Kelso is demanding at least $8 billion to construct new facilities.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has said Kelso went “too far” in his plans “over the last several months, especially considering the economic realities of these times” (California Healthline, 1/29).

Here is what the National Ledger had to say: “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.”

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation estimates the annual cost of operating these facilities to be between $170,000 and $230,000 per inmate.

In the meantime, health care spending per inmate rose from $7,601 per inmate in 2005-06 to $13,778 per inmate in 2007-08 — an 81 percent increase and far above the average of $4,600 spent on health care per law abiding Californian.

Do we really want a federally run health care program. Something to think about!