Medical operations at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad were turned over again to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) by J. Clark Kelso, the federal receiver, reports the Correctional News.
It’s only the second prison (after Folsom) to receive a passing grade from the state inspector general in a decade of federal control.
Don Spector, director of the Prison Law Offices, and their experts, however, found problems with the quality and type of care being provided at the Soledad facility and voiced their concerns.
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As a result Kelso and other department officials will have their experts return to Soledad in six months to see if conditions have improved.
“The CDCR must be operating all 34 adult institutions for a year before the court will even consider ending the receivership,” said Thelton Henderson, U.S. District Court Judge.
Last July, the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco also got a passing grade from the receiver, but the decision to return control back to CDCR was stayed in lieu of Governor Brown’s decision on whether Norco would be kept open.
In January, the governor’s office announced that Norco will stay open so the state can stay below the prison population cap set by the federal court.
Over the past decade, California has spent $2 billion on new medical facilities and doubled its health care budget to around $1.7 billion. It has also reduced the prison population by 40,000 inmates, says the CDCR.
