By a California prisoner
"How you doing, Pops?" someone asked, with unmistakable concern in his voice.
"I'm just fine, youngster," Pops replied, in obvious pain, while shuffling back to his cell. Painfully and slowly is how he makes his way around. Shuffling to and fro while suffering from innumerable afflictions.
The fact Pops, 72, is on the mainline at the California Correctional Center in Susanville, and not in a prison hospital where doctors and nurses are close by, is indicative of what ails a prison medical system about to go under federal receivership.
Pops, a kind old man most barely notice, is technically a murderer. In reality, he's a caricature of a criminal. The only real threat he poses to society is the financial burden the state chooses to bear by keeping him in prison well into the twilight of his life.
The California Department of Corrections (CDC) is the largest prison system in the country. With a $7 billion budget, the CDC spends $1.1 billion trying to meet the medical needs of 165,000 prisoners.
Despite this monumental medical expenditure, California's prison system is a beleaguered agency whose health care services are about to be placed under federal oversight due to gross incompetence.
"The reports are abominable, they are damning ... (portraying) a system so broken that is an actual threat to inmates, to the staff that work there, to the public," said state senate majority leader, Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, in regards to a report detailing at least 34 "avoidable" deaths.
Other reports suggest the deaths go much higher.
Justice Thelton Henderson of the United States District Court, who oversees an ongoing prison medical lawsuit in Plata v. Davis, said in late May, "I can see myself appointing a receivership to stop 60-some people a year from dying."
California's prison medical system is in disarray. Elderly inmates like Pops, and those with life-threatening diseases, are receiving the worst correctional medical care in the country.
"It's almost unimaginable in a state as wealthy in California ... " said Donald Spector of the Prison Law Office. "How can a system that spends $1.1 billion be so bad?"
Currently, the CDC houses 6,000 inmates over the age of 55, a demographic considered elderly. Further, the Legislative Analysts Office (LAO) estimates elderly prisoners are outpacing the rest of the prison population. By the year 2022, the LAO estimates the CDC will hold 30,000 geriatric prisoners.
Moreover, the hepatitis C virus (HCV) has hit epidemic proportions. This deadly liver disease is carried by at least one-third of the prison population. Treatment for HCV is very expensive, and requires competent gastroenterologists, not general practitioners.
Most of the medical problems are being blamed on the CDC's incompetent doctors in addition to archaic record keeping and staff shortages.
From an August '04 report on CDC's medical, it was determined 58 of the 302 doctors employed had actions taken against their licenses by the Medical Board. A correctional medical license carries with it a much lower standard.
Michael Puisis, an expert appointed to study the CDC's medical problems, testified that at least 150 more doctors are needed, in addition to replacing one-quarter to one-half due to their substandard performances.
In early June, Judge Henderson accelerated the hearings, and decided to "move quickly" on the matter.
A New Approach
Since California has the most Draconian sentencing mandates in the country, the state spends huge sums of money on inmates like Pops, who are basically remnants of their former selves. Studies show age is one of the best indicators of recidivism.
While younger offenders recidivate in huge numbers, once an inmate hits 30, the rates begin to go down significantly.
New York, for example, has an overall recidivism rate of 48 percent. The rates drop to 21 percent for those 50 to 60, and all the way down to 7.4 percent for ex-offenders over 65.
Since it costs more to incarcerate older inmates, two to three times due to a myriad of ailments plaguing this demographic, implementing alternatives to incarceration is not only cost-effective, but socially responsible.
Jonathan Turley, a professor of law at George Washington Law School, founded Project For Older Prisoners (POPS) in '89 in order to address what can be done about the nation's aging prison population. POPS is a volunteer program that works to gain the release of geriatric prisoners who no longer pose a threat to society. With a proven track record, POPS holds a lot of potential.
With so many problems plaguing the CDC, Michael Vitello, a professor of law at McGeorge Law School, and expert on California criminal justice matters, believes a POPS-type program would serve California well. Since reform remains at the forefront of California politics, Vitello believes addressing the aging population in the CDC should be one of the primary factors in the movement.
Total Reform
With prison reorganization and reform the contemporary correctional battlecry, all parties agree the prison system needs a complete overhaul. While reform is expected to take years -- and not all are convinced it can be achieved -- CDC's parole system, just like medical, is also under threat of federal receivership.
Just as Plata keeps CDC's medical under the thumb of Judge Henderson, a similar agreement was made on parole in Valdivia v. Schwarzenegger.
Parole, like medical, is considered a $l billion failure with a recidivism rate of 70 percent -- the worst in the nation. Alternatives to incarceration for minor parole violations, attorneys appointed for revocation hearings, and a 35 day deadline to conduct the hearing itself, are the primary terms the Schwarzenegger administration agreed to in Valdivia.
Yet, despite these stipulations, the CDC hasn't been able to comply with their own agreements in Valdivia or Plata.
Whether it's through the judiciary, the legislature, or any combination thereof, but by no means limited to, a POPS-type program would serve society well in the overall scheme of the prison reform movement. Rather than continue to piecemeal a mosaic of agreements, stipulations, and goals, the CDC in its present form screams for correctional Renaissance.
Under the current system, prison health care comes with a First World price and Third World quality. All the while, inmates like Pops continue to be housed on mainline prisons designed for warehousing, punishment, and the heavy-hand of justice -- the worst case scenario for elderly and sickly inmates.
Thus, until reform actually manifests, the CDC remains stuck in the correctional Dark Ages -- killing its captives through systemic incompetence.
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