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California Proposes $7 Billion for Prison Health Care

by Jarrett Martineau | April 11, 2008 at 03:38 pm

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California is making a bold move to spend up to $7 billion on health care in state prisons, even as the American economy faces an impending downturn, and as the state faces a budget gap for the next year.

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration today proposed $7 billion in state spending to bring health care in state prisons up to constitutional standards.

The plan includes $6 billion to design and construct new health facilities and housing for 10,000 inmates with medical or mental health needs; and $1 billion to improve existing health care facilities at state prisons.

That spending, most of which would require borrowing, nearly triples the $2.5 billion the governor had proposed in his budget submitted to lawmakers in January.

Since that time, new federal receiver Clark Kelso has been surveying the state's prison system and determining what he believes is needed.

"We believe that this proposal will provide the necessary funding to implement a thorough, comprehensive plan by the receiver to achieve what both he and the governor want to accomplish," said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance. "And that is to get health care in the state's correctional system to a constitutionally adequate level of care."