Prison health crisis deepens
Prison health crisis deepens
Take steps to improve inmate care or I will, a judge tells the state.
By Claire Cooper -- Bee Legal Affairs Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Tuesday, November 29, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge's attempt to force action on California's prison health care crisis took a new turn Monday as the judge threw the problem into the governor's lap and a legislator said she'll use confirmation hearings for corrections department brass "as a heavy hammer."
State defendants in a federal lawsuit, who include Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, have no choice but to pay for emergency reforms "the same way you find the money to build a tent to smoke cigars," said Senior U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson in a court hearing.
Henderson said he was "taking the gloves off," expressing mounting frustration over what he called "the no-can-do bureaucratic mind-set that's plagued defendants all along."
He warned state lawyers that he'll convene a hearing on a contempt motion in a few weeks unless the governor personally delegates the power to someone to cut through bureaucratic red tape.
"Real people are really dying. ... Real action is needed," the judge said.
"If (Schwarzenegger) doesn't plan to do it, I'll do it ... and I will give that person the authority that is necessary," Henderson said.
Paul Mello, the state's retained lawyer, told Henderson that Schwarzenegger has started interviewing people for the position. However, when pressed by the judge, Mello said he didn't know how long that process would take.
The hearing followed an overseer's report two weeks ago that said the billion-dollar prison medical system is in "meltdown," with doctors and nurses leaving in droves. According to Henderson, vacancies stand at about 100 for doctors and around 500 for registered nurses.
Earlier this year he found prison medical care out of compliance with constitutional standards for humane care, saying unnecessary inmate deaths averaged one a week. Corrections officials pledged then to cooperate in reforms.
But state lawyers filed objections to emergency measures recommended in the overseer's report, citing hiring procedures and budgetary constraints. They also asked for additional time to make hiring and other decisions.
At Monday's hearing, Henderson wasn't buying it, and neither was state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles.
Echoing Henderson's statement that the defendants "just don't get it," Romero told reporters that explanations for the state's objections will be demanded during confirmation hearings for Roderick Hickman, secretary of the new Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and Jeanne Woodford, undersecretary.
Romero said they'll have to explain the use of $600 million appropriated for prison salaries in the current budget.
"The question is, where's the money? What have they done with it?" Romero said in response to defense statements that money for emergency hiring and retention bonuses is unavailable, despite high vacancy rates.
She also said she was "stunned" to hear in court that Hickman and Woodford hadn't signed off on the objections filed by defense lawyers but had left others free to erect roadblocks.
Romero, who chairs both the Senate budget subcommittee on prisons and the Senate Select Committee on the Correctional System, said Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata has directed her to begin screening Hickman and Woodford for confirmation hearings before the Rules Committee.
"I'm not going to be as nice as the judge," she said.
Henderson, while tearing into management-level leaders, praised the majority of corrections medical workers as competent, hardworking and committed.
"I want them to know that a new day is coming and ask them to persevere until we get there," he said.
He also praised a coalition of health care unions for what he called its cooperative approach.
He said he would soon issue a written order on the overseer's recommendations.
A Schwarzenegger spokeswoman said later that the governor is committed to making needed reforms.
Julie Soderlund said two officials whom the governor appointed Monday to head the prison medical system - Dr. Peter Farber-Szekrenyi as chief of health care services and Darc Keller as assistant secretary for health care policy - will report to Hickman, not to Schwarzenegger.
"However, the governor will be holding them accountable for bringing needed reform to our prison health care system," Soderlund said.
About the writer:
The Bee's Claire Cooper can be reached at (415) 551-7701 or ccooper@sacbee.com.
