Receiver wants 7,000 inmates transferred

SACRAMENTO
January 20, 2009 12:16pm

As many as 7,000 prisoners in Central Valley prisons must be transferred for their health, says Clark Kelso, the receiver appointed by court order to manage the prison system’s health care.

Avenal State Prison, California State Prison in Corcoran, the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, and Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga fail to provide adequate health care. Mr. Kelso says.

“One yard at Substance Abuse Treatment Facility, for instance, is seven weeks behind in providing primary care appointments. This crisis has been caused by a variety of factors, including overcrowding, inadequate clinical space, rural isolation, inability to attract clinicians, and the CDCR policy of placing chronically ill populations at these remote institutions,” Mr. Kelso says in a report.

He says the inmates should be transferred to prisons closer to urban areas, with healthy inmates displaced to make room.

(Download a copy of the full report by clicking on the link below.)

Mr. Kelso reserves harsh words for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown for stalling prison healthcare reforms.

“Dysfunctional prisons threaten the safety and security of all of us; nevertheless, it will prove to be neither popular nor easy fixing California’s prisons. To do so will require State leaders with resolve and exceptional courage. Unfortunately, thus far, Governor Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Brown have displayed neither,” he writes.