A federal receiver in charge of California’s prison health care released a report Monday on inmate mortality. It says the inmate death rate has declined for a second year in a row. But as KPCC’s Julie Small reports, the number of deaths prison doctors might have prevented is up.
The report says that between 2006 and 2008, the death rate among California inmates declined 13 percent. But during that same period, the number of deaths that might have been prevented had doctors diagnosed and treated inmates rose from 44 to 66.
Clark Kelso, the federal receiver who spent billions of state dollars purging bad doctors from prisons and replacing them with more and better qualified ones, says it's not the doctors' fault.
"It’s not that we’ve got bad clinicians," Kelso said. "It’s that they’re working in a third world environment."
Kelso says there’s only so much those clinicians can do to improve care when prisons are packed to near double capacity, and when the clerks who file paper medical records are backlogged by months.
Kelso said the problem isn't that he lacks enough prison doctors somewhere, it's systemic failure.
"I don’t have health records anywhere. I have overcrowding everywhere. I don’t have facilitates anywhere," Kelso said.
The receiver’s review determines inmate deaths were preventable by noting when prison medical staff failed to follow correct procedures. Federal receiver Clark Kelso says one reason the number of preventable deaths is up since 2006 is that his office is doing a better job of identifying gross lapses in prison medical care.
One example from the report tells of an inmate who was diagnosed with asthma at one prison, then was transferred to a different prison. But the medical record that noted the asthma diagnosis didn’t go with him. The inmate had to wait two weeks to see a doctor at the new prison. On the day of his appointment, prison guards found the inmate “unresponsive” in his cell.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Release Older Inmates To Save Money?
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SAN DIEGO — Elderly inmates are among the fastest growing segments of California’s prison population. Inmates over age 55 have doubled in number over the past 10 years and will more than double again by 2022, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
Older inmates are two to three times more expensive to incarcerate then their younger counterparts because they require more health care services, according to the LAO.
Currently, California spends $10 billion a year on the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which makes up 10 percent of its general fund. If the state, under current sentencing laws, continues to send more people to prison longer, can it afford the costs of housing, health care, and eventually hospice care?
The state of California is under federal court order to reduce its prison population by 27 percent, or about 40,000 inmates, because prisons are so overcrowded they violate prisoners’ constitutional rights. Considering older inmates are statistically less likely to re-offend, the LAO suggests releasing older inmates to save money.
Would you consider releasing non-violent elderly inmates from California prisons?
Older inmates are two to three times more expensive to incarcerate then their younger counterparts because they require more health care services, according to the LAO.
Currently, California spends $10 billion a year on the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which makes up 10 percent of its general fund. If the state, under current sentencing laws, continues to send more people to prison longer, can it afford the costs of housing, health care, and eventually hospice care?
The state of California is under federal court order to reduce its prison population by 27 percent, or about 40,000 inmates, because prisons are so overcrowded they violate prisoners’ constitutional rights. Considering older inmates are statistically less likely to re-offend, the LAO suggests releasing older inmates to save money.
Would you consider releasing non-violent elderly inmates from California prisons?
Extreme overtime puts Cailfornia's prison health overhaul at risk
California's prison health care employees work hard – or so it would
seem by their schedules.. Many average 12 hours a day; others
routinely log 16- to 18-hour shifts for months on end, creating a
costly overtime free-for-all in this budget-strapped state.
An abundance of forced and voluntary overtime has driven some nurses
beyond human endurance. In the process, the long hours have opened
the door for deadly lapses in a health care system just beginning to
recover from decades of neglect.
"People who are pushing it to that level, working a ridiculous number
of hours, usually crash," said Yolanda Esparza, a certified nursing
assistant who works evenings and some nights at the California
Institution for Women in Corona.
"I myself have witnessed people sleeping at their posts – heavily,
snoring, full sleep. They don't even notice people walking by. It's
pretty common," Esparza said.
Asked what happens when nurses are found sleeping on the job – a
gross violation of prison rules – one prison nursing director said
simply, "We would wake them up." Often, she said, the nurse is then
sent back to work.
A Bee investigation found that lax recruitment, worsened by the state
budget crisis, and programs such as one for the suicidal that's
exploited by savvy inmates, have contributed to extreme staff work
schedules. Correctional officials have tolerated the practice despite
criticism about the price of prison health care, which cost more than
$2.1 billion in the year ending in June 2008.
In 2006, a federal judge appointed a receiver to combat substandard
medical care in California prisons. Clinics were upgraded, services
added and wages boosted – usually well above rates paid in regular
hospitals. Incompetent doctors and nurses were ousted, and many new
clinicians were hired. Care improved.
Clicking title will take you to the complete article
Source: The Fresno Bee
seem by their schedules.. Many average 12 hours a day; others
routinely log 16- to 18-hour shifts for months on end, creating a
costly overtime free-for-all in this budget-strapped state.
An abundance of forced and voluntary overtime has driven some nurses
beyond human endurance. In the process, the long hours have opened
the door for deadly lapses in a health care system just beginning to
recover from decades of neglect.
"People who are pushing it to that level, working a ridiculous number
of hours, usually crash," said Yolanda Esparza, a certified nursing
assistant who works evenings and some nights at the California
Institution for Women in Corona.
"I myself have witnessed people sleeping at their posts – heavily,
snoring, full sleep. They don't even notice people walking by. It's
pretty common," Esparza said.
Asked what happens when nurses are found sleeping on the job – a
gross violation of prison rules – one prison nursing director said
simply, "We would wake them up." Often, she said, the nurse is then
sent back to work.
A Bee investigation found that lax recruitment, worsened by the state
budget crisis, and programs such as one for the suicidal that's
exploited by savvy inmates, have contributed to extreme staff work
schedules. Correctional officials have tolerated the practice despite
criticism about the price of prison health care, which cost more than
$2.1 billion in the year ending in June 2008.
In 2006, a federal judge appointed a receiver to combat substandard
medical care in California prisons. Clinics were upgraded, services
added and wages boosted – usually well above rates paid in regular
hospitals. Incompetent doctors and nurses were ousted, and many new
clinicians were hired. Care improved.
Clicking title will take you to the complete article
Source: The Fresno Bee
When California denies a murderer parole, should it need a reason?
Eligible prisoners can't be refused early release just because of the gravity of their crimes -- 'some evidence' has to show the inmate would pose a threat to public safety, some judges have ruled.
Reporting from Vacaville, Calif. - During the 26 years that James Alexander has spent in prison for killing a fellow drug dealer, he has maintained a spotless behavior record and devoted himself to helping other inmates shake addictions.
He's been such a model prisoner that state parole commissioners -- on three occasions -- recommended that he be released. All three times, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger overruled them.
Alexander, 47, is among the hundreds of so-called lifers whom state parole boards have deemed rehabilitated and ready to rejoin society, but who sit behind bars because their crime was murder. In recent years, some judges have sided with lifers, ruling that the state can't deny an inmate parole solely because of the gravity of his original offense but rather must provide "some evidence" that he would pose a threat to public safety if released.
The legal notion that corrections officials must, in essence, show that an inmate remains a threat to society is being challenged in a pending case before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Source: LA Times
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
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