Attorney General Jerry Brown, with the support of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, filed a motion in U.S. District Court on January 28 to end the Prison Health Care Receivership. Clark Kelso, the current receiver, wants the state to fork over $8 billion that it does not have, to provide "state of the art" medical care for state prisoners. At the same time, Taxpayers For a Safe Ventura County filed suit this week to prevent the federal judiciary from extracting money from state taxpayers to build prison health care facilities.
The governor, in comments before the Sacramento Press Club, said: "The receiver will never get that money. This is important to know. I will not give it to him. I think the controller will not give it to him. And I don't think the Legislature will give it to him."
The attorney general was in rare form at a January 28 press conference, with a number of pithy comments on the program he called "an $8 billion boondoggle":
· "The receiver wants to spend wildly, far in excess of federal prison care spending and far in excess of what families spend. The cost per prisoner under the receiver's plan is $13,800 per prisoner. The federal cost is $4,000 per inmate."
· "The gold-plated wish list of the receiver includes a yoga room, a quiet room, a music room, basketball courts, landscaped courtyards."
· "The receiver has become a parallel government, operating virtually in secret and not accountable to the public and not subject to public scrutiny, resulting in spending that far exceeds constitutional requirements."
· "What is an adequate standard of medical care? The receiver has said he will know it when we get there. When is enough enough? There must be an agreed-upon standard. There are never-ending escalating demands."
· "The receiver is trying to turn inmates into patients. It is a utopian plan for dormitories of patients, rather than cell-blocks for inmates."
· "Hundreds of millions have been spent on lawyers in this dispute."
· "The system has become dysfunctional in its totality. Twenty different federal courts are saying how to run things. Dozens of people can give orders, some contradicting."
· "The federal government should not be re-engineering a function of state government. It is a violation of separation of powers and also violates the federal Prison Reform Act."
Mr. Kelso said in a press release: "This is just another transparent attempt by a career politician to grab headlines. The attorney general should stop wasting taxpayers' money filing meritless motions."
Mr. Brown responded that it is odd and unbecoming for an officer of the court to engage in political mudslinging. The governor said, "I think he (Mr. Kelso) is really an obstacle to getting things done and providing health care for inmates."
Director of Finance Mike Genest revealed that the day-to-day operating expenses of the receiver have grown from $948 million in 2005-06 to a proposed $2.3 billion in 2009-10, which Mr. Genest said is "unacceptable." He said there is a lot of duplication, with a parallel bureaucracy that has a personnel department, a public information department, etc.
Steven Baric, a lead partner with the Horizon law group and lead attorney on behalf of Taxpayers for a Safe Ventura County, said the group is taking legal action "because the appointed receiver has gone too far." He added: "When a policy difference threatens to undermine public safety and bankrupt California, the people have to say enough is enough."
According to the Ventura group, the receiver is planning to construct seven new prison facilities, each the size of 10 Wal-Mart stores, in seven California communities, including Camarillo, and these facilities could house the state's most dangerous prisoners.
Attorney General Brown indicated that California will take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
(Sources: Cal-Tax coverage of the attorney general's press conference, January 28; Cal-Tax coverage of the governor's remarks at the Sacramento Press Club, January 28; The Sacramento Bee, January 29; Ventura County Star, January 29.)
Cal-TaxReports, February 2, 2009
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