First the good news: J. Clark Kelso wants to reduce prison health care costs.
And now the bad news: He wants to release upwards of 1,000 supposed invalid prisoners – many of whom might have committed such acts as rape, 2nd degree murder and other dangerous felonies. But does California really have a high level of invalid prisoners to warrant this legislation?
Probably not.
But painting the picture of a few comatose inmates makes for good political theatre. Though it does not tell the real story, which is: We have some incapacitated inmates AND California already has a law that deals with this issue – on a case-by-case basis.
Therefore, the Kelso-sponsored legislation (including Sen. Mark Leno’s Senate Bill 1399) does nothing to address the problem of sky-high health care costs for California prisoners, which is currently $17,000 per prisoner per year!
(Other large states spend a fraction of that: New York spends $5,800. Florida spends $4,300. The federal government spends only $4,400. It may be the opinion of a liberal federal judge that California’s prison healthcare is inadequate, but these numbers contradict that belief).
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the real savings can be found in reducing the overall cost of health care for ALL prisoners. I don’t believe that incarcerated felons should have better healthcare than law-abiding citizens of California. That’s why I in the past I have introduced the idea that California would not spend anymore of money on inmate’s health care than it does on Medi-Cal recipients.