A federal judge today (Wednesday) ordered California officials to come up with plan to pay 250-million dollars for improvements to prison medical care. This order is an interim step. KPCC's Julie Small reports the next step could be swift and expensive.
Judge Thelton Henderson ordered state officials to be in his San Francisco courtroom in two weeks. He wants to see a plan that will explicitly explain how and when California will pay 250-million dollars to fix prison medical care. The quarter-of-a-billion is just a down payment.
Federal receiver Clark Kelso's plan to construct new prison hospitals and renovate existing ones could eventually cost California 8-billion dollars. Judge Henderson signed off on that plan, but four times, state lawmakers defeated a bill to pay for it. That's why Kelso asked the judge to order state officials to pay up and if they don't to hold the Governor and the State Controller in contempt.
Judge Henderson chose an intermediate step. He wants to see a plan before he starts issuing contempt citations. He's given federal receiver Kelso the OK to depose the Governors' finance officials on how the state could pay 8-billion dollars for prison hospitals.
