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Prison Overcrowding Health Problems

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime & Justice News

"California, home to 1 in 10 U.S. state prison inmates,

is getting a nudge from the federal courts to move

faster to revamp its overcrowded prisons, says the

Christian Science Monitor. Already moving on an

extensive $7.7 billion plan to expand prison capacity,

the state faces federal pressure to oversee another $7

billion in upgraded healthcare facilities for prison

inmates. The legislature this week will examine a

request to approve the spending, which would require

new borrowing. The tab of nearly $15 billion for

prisons has dismayed lawmakers faced with a $16

billion budget deficit that has prompted huge

proposed cuts in spending on education and health

care.

At near double capacity with almost 172,000 inmates

in 33 facilities, California's problems reflect a national

pattern. Years of tough crime policies, including "three

strikes you're out" laws and harsher parole rules, have

resulted in overcrowded prisons and inadequate

health services. It is a 'cautionary tale as to what can

happen when states continually let their prison

populations grow by passing all sorts of mandatory

sentencing laws and parole policies that are tougher

on returning prisoners to the system,' says Michael

Jacobson of the Vera Institute. Federal receiver J.

Clark Kelso's plan for improving California prison

health care includes seven new facilities by mid-2013

to house 10,000 chronically sick or mentally ill

inmates now in traditional cells.  'This money is for

construction of facilities that are desperately needed,'

he says. 'What we have in Californian prisons is

incredibly old and not maintained.'"

Christian Science Monitor - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0019bdVri4SorV99XuO6lTN9isr6roSSRfEVkJB-A3Wu9yph3NWdaI3ho-9I7zxwzmkANF_pY_xudOrNPDGOKMXULxu-ly9Vz4gAW1WkOUdJVv0TW8wp_NfCvHbHWbGO_JGR3AJfU4EM9t_Roib0wl3uRhIZKSL5bSM

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on April 22, 2008 (boomark / email).