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CA: Small group of ill prisoners and those sentenced under 3 strikes cost the state plenty

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Small group of ill inmates costs state plenty By Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau San Francisco Chronicle Wednesday, May 19, 2010 As California struggles to pay for social services for its poorest residents, it spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on health care for a small group of sick inmates - in one case $1 million during a dying inmate's final year, according to a state audit released Tuesday. The state also spends billions of extra dollars on the longer sentences handed down under the state's "three strikes" law in part because those inmates age in prison and need health care, the report by State Auditor Elaine Howle found. Roughly one-quarter of the $2.1 billion spent on prison health care in 2007-08 paid for specialty health care, or services beyond primary care...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on May 23, 2010 (boomark / email).