Problems in healthcare persist at the private prisons in California paid to house the state’s overflow population.
According to medical receiver Clark Kelso, “Little progress has been made in resolving, much less improving,” medical care at seven private prisons housing 4,200 inmates.
Kelso’s statement appeared in a report sent to the three federal judges who oversee the state’s prison systems, according to a Los Angeles Times article by Paige St. John.
Four of the seven prisons are owned by the Florida based GEO Group, which owns or manages 106 prisons in the U.S. and in other countries. The GEO Group, which houses a total of 85,000 inmates, reported revenue of close to half a billion dollars in the first three months of this year.
The worst problems were at GEO’s women’s prison in McFarland, according to Joyce Hayhoe, a Kelso spokeswoman. The report cited “lack of accountability,” no physician for a month and failure to employ qualified physicians. Inmates with health issues were sent back to state-operated prisons, Kelso reported.
A spokesman for the GEO Group stated the company will work with California to “ensure consistent delivery of quality medical services.”
The contract with GEO Group allows the state to seek damages if minimum healthcare staffing requirements are not met. The state corrections department will not seek damages, says spokeswoman Deborah Hoffman. The state expects contract operators to increase the availability of nurses and doctors.
Earlier Gov. Jerry Brown had proposed moving 8,000 inmates currently in out-of-state prisons back into California contract prisons to save money. Kelso warns against this, saying it could cause even greater problems with medical care at these private facilities.
Meanwhile Kelso reports that healthcare continues to improve in California’s state-run prisons. The 34 California state prison healthcare programs are being evaluated on a one-by-one basis.
Folsom State Prison was deemed “adequate” by the independent Office of Inspector General in April. This will lead to a final review by Kelso’s office before Folsom is turned back over to “state-control.”
