Posted on 01/20/2009 1:18:40 PM PST by SmithL
SACRAMENTO -- Up to 7,000 sick California inmates must be transferred to prisons with access to better medical care, a court-appointed receiver said in a court filing Tuesday.
Receiver Clark Kelso is in charge of improving inmate medical care but has become frustrated with the pace of reform. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers have so far refused to provide the $8 billion he seeks to build new medical facilities.
In the court documents, he said physically and mentally ill inmates cannot get proper care at four isolated prisons in the Central Valley. Those prisons are 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.
The receiver's office recommended the inmates be shifted to prisons closer to urban areas, including those in Vacaville and Soledad. Tens of thousands of healthy inmates at those prisons would be displaced to make room.
"There seems to be a feeling by the governor and attorney general that there are no consequences to not building (medical) facilities,"
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga.
Somehow intuitively you know this place is anything but pleasant.
I have a friend at Pleasant Valley (verrrry long story, and no, he’s not an innocent victim of an unfeeling justice system) and your intuition couldn’t be sharper. This article is of particular interest to me because my friend has an illness that is exacerbated by the Central Valley’s heavy agricultural pollution. I hope he does get transferred to some place where he can get better care. Believe me, he is already paying heavily for his shall we say poor judgments, and dying slowly and painfully of a treatable disease doesn’t need to be added to that.
How many ill inmates are in the US and CA illegally? Send them to a prison in their home country and THEN let them be taken care of THERE!
How and why would a state like CA (desperately broke) find $8 billion for the scum of the earth???
Not that simple. The inmate I know at Pleasant Valley is as American as can be and while certainly deserving of his punishment he isn’t the scum of the earth. Just a (non-violent) screwed-up dude who stole a whole bunch of money. Constitution is very clear on cruel and unusual punishment — it was important to the Founders to distinguish our prison system from England’s. Take it from me, there is nothing cushy or plush about my friend’s circumstances. It’s just as grim and rotten as you would want it to be. But given that the inmates can’t earn enough of a living to pay for their own medical care, that’s on us.
He’s been trying for years to make reservations at San Quentin (imagine wanting to be in San Quentin) for years, to be closer to his daughter, but it appears — perhaps given the desirable bay-view location — that it’s fully booked.
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