Better Health Care for Prisoners
In what might be a model for all political reforms, California’s health care system is getting a jail break.
The Sacramento Bee reports: “A federal judge took the first formal step Tuesday toward placing the California prison health care system in receivership, saying it has killed ‘a significant number of prisoners’ and is sure to kill more without drastic intervention.
Senior U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson issued an order to show cause why the state should not relinquish control of the system to a court-appointed receiver who could be granted the power to direct policy, staff and spending.”
We should see more orders, especially aimed at the federal level, asking why certain government agencies “should not relinquish control” of the bureaucracy over which they preside.
Henderson said he’ll also consider holding Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and members of his corrections team in contempt of court for reneging on reforms promised by the current administration and that of former Gov. Gray Davis.
In contempt of court for reneging on promises? This precendent could be a politician’s worst nightmare.
“The problem of a highly dysfunctional, largely decrepit, overly bureaucratic and politically driven prison system, which these defendants have inherited from past administrations, is too far gone to be corrected by conventional methods,” Henderson said.
Interestingly, that description might apply elsewhere. The I.R.S., the I.N.S., Department of Education and Social Security Administration come to mind for starters. What’s next?
January 19th, 2006 at 11:39 pm
Interesting to hear there is better health care for prisoners as we are in a major health care crisis.