Kelso: Separate Prison Health Care From Corrections Dept. « Prisonmovement's Weblog

By J. Clark Kelso
Special to The Bee

Published: Tuesday, Sep. 14, 2010

Eighteen months ago, I promised to reduce prison medical costs by up to $500 million while improving the quality of care (“Prison health care reform can save money”; Viewpoints, March 16, 2009). Now that the 2009-10 fiscal year has ended, it is time for me to report on my promise.
We began the year anticipating our expenditures would be $2.146 billion. During the year, we implemented substantial changes to improve quality of care while simultaneously reducing unnecessary costs. The result? A reduction of $408 million in our expenditures. That is almost a 20 percent reduction and just over 80 percent of what I had forecast 18 months ago. My executive team and staff in the 33 institutions deserve the credit for this success.
These were not one-time gimmicks. These were permanent reductions in operations costs. This is an extraordinary accomplishment in one year and proof to critics that the public sector is capable of healing itself if given the freedom, independence and direction to get the job done.

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Kelso: Separate Prison Health Care From Corrections Dept. « Prisonmovement's Weblog