Why spend more on sick prisoners than on sick veterans?

By JEFF DENHAM

last updated: August 25, 2008 02:43:02 AM

Court-appointed prison receiver -- attorney Clark Kelso -- has carte blanche to seize $8 billion of taxpayer money to build state-of-the-art medical facilities for prisoners. Does he not realize California is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy? Let's put this outrageous money grab for vicious convicts into proper perspective.

Kelso is trying to force California to spend 33 times more money on medical facilities for violent sexual predators, murderers and other criminals than the federal government spends annually in California on medical programs for veterans -- the men and women who have risked their lives to keep this country free.

As a veteran, I find this unconscionable.

It seems Kelso pulled the $8 billion number out of thin air, while providing virtually no detail on how those billions will be spent. We know that Kelso wants to build seven new prison medical facilities and renovate 33 prison clinics. With an $8 billion price tag, and an estimated 171,000 inmates in California, that pencils out to nearly $47,000 per inmate just for medical facilities.

How could this be characterized as anything but "Cadillac" construction for convicts? By contrast, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports that in 2007, it spent $3 billion for both health care and medical building construction programs for the 2.1 million veterans living in California. That amounts to only $1,400 per veteran.

Adding insult to injury, a 2004 Council of Governments report said California already spends nearly $1 billion a year on inmate health care. That's more on health care per prisoner than any other state of its size -- nearly twice as much as Texas and more than Florida and Ohio.

Why is it that Texas can comply with federal regulations for prisoner health care at half the cost of California? Perhaps it's because the judges and prison officials in Texas are providing a minimum level of health care for criminals while California officials are providing expensive medical facilities.

Maybe in California, the inmates really are running the asylum.

The crazy 2006 federal court ruling that established a prison receiver was the result of an inmate lawsuit and is yet another example of liberal judges gone wild. The decision should have been appealed then.

Prison is supposed to be punishment. Most Californians probably agree that the state should be providing only the bare minimum and least costly level of health care for prisoners.

Why should war veterans receive less for health care than vicious criminals? Why should honest, hard-working families who are struggling to put food on their tables and gas in their cars be forced to cover Kelso's outrageous costs for convicts? It would seem the appointed prison receiver and some unelected federal judges have their priorities screwed up.

We must put a stop to this madness!

Both the governor and the attorney general should immediately go to court or take whatever action is necessary to block Kelso from getting his hands on $8 billion of taxpayer money to fund Cadillac health care for convicts.

Denham, of Atwater, represents the 12th district in the California Senate.

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