Creating an independent oversight program and controlling costs should be long-term goals for prisoner medical care, the independent Legislative Analyst Office advised state lawmakers in an April report.
“We recommend that the Legislature create an independent board to provide oversight and evaluation of the inmate medical care program to ensure that the quality of care does not deteriorate over time. We further recommend that the state take steps to address current operational inefficiencies and establish a pilot project to contract for medical care services to bring state expenditures to a more sustainable level,” the agency stated.
In 2006, a federal judge placed the California prison medical department under receivership because of it failed to deliver constitutional medical care to its inmates. Since that time, the receiver has increased the quality of inmate medical care but also increased state expenditures.
The LAO said the increased cost of the inmate medical care program resulted from not consistently delivering the appropriate level of care, not taking advantage of audio and video technology that could link patients to outside specialists, and an inefficient management structure.
In January 2012, federal judges found substantial progress towards achieving a constitutional level of medical care for prison inmates. But they ruled more improvements are needed.
The court ordered prison administrators, the receiver, and attorneys representing prison inmates to jointly develop a plan for transitioning the responsibility for managing inmate medical care back to the state.
