A Personal Perspective on Prison Healthcare

Some readers may recall the excellent posts that appeared in the SF Bay Guardian politics blog for a while, authored by an unnamed inmate in a CA facility. Now released from prison (congratulations, and welcome back!) Just A Guy continues to post about his experiences.

His recent post in the Guardian criticizes Governor Schwarzenegger for the decision to appeal the Plata/Coleman ruling.

Don’t Arnold and the state government see this isn’t about just health care for inmates, but also about rational laws, rational sentencing, and treating human beings with dignity and respect? I know the majority of the public would rather bury its head in the sand than face this issue, but this issue is in your living rooms, in your classrooms, and on your streets. It isn’t just the gang-banging jerk from the hood that’s being thrown in jail for ridiculous amounts of time in California -- it’s also middle class addicts, college students etc … It’s your neighbors, your friends’ kids, and your kids that are all affected by this insanity.

New San Quentin Hospital Opens

As reported by the Associated Press on Seattle Pi:

The receiver who once ran California's prison health care system promised three years ago that he would use his court-backed muscle to build a new medical facility in record time.

The pledge has come true with the opening of a $136 million, five-story hospital at San Quentin State Prison - four months earlier than its ambitious schedule and $10 million under budget.

Yet the state-of-the-art facility already is a relic from a time when California had money and the federal receiver could act with impunity. Its aggressive advocate, receiver Robert Sillen, is gone, too.

Officials showed off the 50-bed hospital and its dental, medical and mental health outpatient clinics in an exclusive tour for The Associated Press last week, even before it was seen by top state officials. Parts of the facility are already in use and the rest are scheduled to open in January.

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props to Jerry Jarvis for the link.

The Fruit of Humonetarianism: An Expected Decline in Incarceration

As reported recently on the Chron, tight state budgets are expected to lead to a reversal of the incarceration trend nationwide:

The United States may soon see its prison population drop for the first time in almost four decades, a milestone in a nation that locks up more people than any other. The inmate population has risen steadily since the early 1970s as states adopted get-tough policies that sent more people to prison and kept them there longer. But tight budgets now have states rethinking these policies and the costs that come with them.

"It's a reversal of a trend that's been going on for more than a generation," said David Greenberg, a sociology professor at New York University. "In some ways, it's overdue."

The U.S. prison population dropped steadily during most of the 1960s, but it has risen every year since 1972, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

About 739,000 prisoners were admitted to state and federal facilities last year, about 3,500 more than were released, according to new figures from the bureau. The 0.8 percent growth in the prison population is the smallest annual increase this decade and significantly less than the 6.5 percent average annual growth of the 1990s.

Happy Holidays to our readers, and a Happy New Year.

Decline in Inmate Death Rate; Rise in Preventable Deaths

The Federal Receiver's office has recently released information regarding the 2008 inmate death reviews. According to the report, there is an overall decline in inmate deaths, from 248.6 to 215.5 per 100,000 inmates.

Out of a total of 369 deaths, 122 - the largest category - were due to cancer. Suicides, accounting for 38 deaths, come in second as causes of death. The report classifies 17% of deaths as "possibly preventable". Out of the 303 non-preventable causes, cancer, suicide, and liver disease are the leading causes, which, as the report states, are "not unexpected given the high incidence of smoking, drug abuse and depression in the incarcerated population". Out of the 61 possibly preventable deaths, cancer, sudden cardiac arrest, and pneumonia top the list. The most common lapses in care identified by the report are misdiagnosis (81 cases) and lack of access to appropriate care (25 cases). The report finds strong causal connections between the identified lapses in care and preventable deaths.

The report also provides some interesting discussion of preventability, which, as it states, is "in the eye of the beholder". The multiple lapses of care are, of course, a cause for concern, but I for one am thankful for the transparency of information.

Resuscitating the Michigan Deal?

(image courtesy Michigan Radio)

Attentive followers of the overcrowding crisis may recall the failure of the deal to house California prisoners in Michigan institutions back in August. Since then, the correctional institutions in question - the maximum security Standish facility and the minimum security Hiwatha facility - have been standing empty, even after Michigan reached a deal to house Pennsylvania prisoners.

The Chron reported yesterday that Michigan is looking at several possibilities, among them a new proposal for CA. Another possibility is housing Guantanamo prisoners, and as Michigan Public Radio reports, Obama administration officials have toured the facility in order to determine whether it would be suitable for the job.

Prop 9 Lives: Access to Parole Suitability Hearing Content

The CDCR website reports on an implementation of one of Prop 9's aspects: Victims, and others, will have access to an online transcript of the inmate's parole suitability hearing before the parole board. The transcripts are emailed to the victim, free of charge, or mailed for a flat fee of $25 per transcript.

This raises understandable concerns about confidentiality, which are answered by limiting the availability of this information to registered victims. The request webpage reads:

Marsy’s Law, Penal Code section 3041.5 (a) (4) permits the victim, next of kin, members of the victim’s family, and two representatives designated by the victim to request and receive a stenographic record of all proceedings. Any persons requesting a hearing transcript must be registered and meet the criteria of a victim as identified through the Office of Victim and Survivor Rights and Services (OVSRS). Please note: You must be registered in order to have your transcript request processed.

Now, the form used to request victim services (see image) allows you to register even if you are a "concerned citizen." However, it does limit notifications of parole hearings to victims and next of kin. It would make sense to similarly limit the ability to request a transcript. Moreover, this mechanism does not prevent forwarding the email received by victims to others.

Given the potential for wide dissemination of parole suitability hearing information, the question is: Does the public have a right to know the content of the hearing? What do you think?

Back on Track Graduation

Two weeks ago, 15 formerly incarcerated men and women graduated from the San Francisco District Attorney's program Back on Track. The video above, from a 2007 news segment, provides an introduction to the premise of the program. The program has a record of dramatic recidivism reduction, but very few participants. Nevertheless, it might be the herald of similar initiatives.