FARAI CHIDEYA, host:
I am Farai Chideya and this is NEWS & NOTES.
Every Thursday, we talk health, and today we've got an unusual headline for you. California is having trouble keeping its inmates healthy. That's according to several lawsuits filed against the state, alleging that the prison system is just too crowded. And if California can't get its act together, a new court panel could force the state to institute population caps.
For more, we've got Nancy Vogel. She's been covering the story for the Los Angeles Times. Nancy, welcome.
Ms. NANCY VOGEL (Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times): Thank you, Farai.
CHIDEYA: So the news about overcrowding actually begins with several inmates suing California over health care. What do you know about these suits?
Ms. VOGEL: There have been several lawsuits. Actually, there have been lawsuits filed on behalf of prisoners challenging medical care, dental care, treatment of the mentally ill and treatment of disabled inmates.
The first of those lawsuits was filed in June 1991, one week before three inmates died in a psychiatric ward. They died of heatstroke. They had no air conditioning during a triple-digit heat wave. And there have also been reports of severely mentally ill prisoners being kept in isolation without blankets or clothing or even mattresses.
Outside experts have looked at the prison health care system, which, by the way, that costs Californians about $1.4 billion a year. They called it deplorable. They said they think, at least, to approximately one unnecessary death every 10 days from neglect or incompetence.
There is a shortage of doctors they say, shortage of guards to escort the inmates to the doctors. And in part because of the overcrowded conditions that prisons are - for much of the time in lockdown, which means inmates can't leave their cells for anything including seeing doctors, all of which leads to delays in care that be life threatening.
I heard, for example, of one inmate who in a prison near Baker's Field who waited nearly a year for a colonoscopy, and when he finally got to the doctor his tumor was so big they couldn't use a scope on him.
CHIDEYA: You write in your article about people living in dormitory-style conditions, in gymnasiums. How big is the California prison system and just how overcrowded is it?
Ms. VOGEL: Well, as you might expect our prison system is the biggest in the country. One out of nine people who are incarcerated across the country is locked up here. We have more than 172,000 inmates in a system that was designed for 100,000. In corrections, officials say they've got about 18,000 inmates bunked in gymnasiums, classrooms, dayrooms, and other places that weren't designed as cells.
CHIDEYA: The United States has, I believe, the highest incarceration rate in the developed world. You say that California actually has been farming out some its inmates to other areas. What does that mean?
Ms. VOGEL: To try to head off the federal court intervention that's coming, the governor and the legislature have been trying to ship inmates to private prisons out of state. So far, they have shipped 400 volunteers to private prisons in Arizona and Tennessee. And last week, they started the forcible shipping of prisoners who didn't necessarily volunteer for it. They sent 40 of them to Mississippi. Most of those were undocumented folks who could be deported once they finish their sentences.
And under a state law that was passed in May, up to 8,000 prisoners will be transferred out of state over the next several years. That's a key element of the governor's plan to try to head off this federal court intervention.
CHIDEYA: It's clear that California system is overburdened, but is some of this due to rules, say, the three strikes law, and will this ruling require that the state reconsider everything in terms of the laws that the state upholds and also the way it treats prisoners?
Ms. VOGEL: Oh, definitely. It's all got to be reviewed. Now, lawyers for the prisoners argue that a prison cap, if it were imposed, wouldn't mean that hardcore criminals walk out of their cells with years remaining on their sentences. They say that you could start to look at the tens of thousands of inmates we've got who were there for a real short sentences, usually under six months because they violated their parole.
And some people who have studied state and county early release programs around the country have found that there's really no increase in crime rate, so the rate at which those who were released early returned to prison. What California needs for sure, many people say, is to overhaul its sentencing laws. I mean, we've got about a thousand felony sentencing laws; another 100 felony sentencing enhancements, most of which were passed by politicians' piecemeal, who wanted to appear tough on crime. And we have one bill pending now that would create a sentencing commission to do that overhaul.
But a lot of experts say that what the state really needs is to give prison officials the flexibility to release inmates who show good behavior, release them early, and hang on to the people who they consider very dangerous. And another key element folks say is we really need a big investment in drug and alcohol treatment, anger management classes, family counseling, job training, all those programs that are geared toward rehabilitation.
I guess a couple of years ago Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger changed the name of our department from the Department of Corrections to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. But a lot of experts say we've got a long way to go to live up to that title.
CHIDEYA: Well, Nancy, thank you so much for sharing the story with us.
Ms. VOGEL: No problem, Farai. Thank you.
CHIDEYA: Nancy Vogel is a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times.
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