The Orange County Register: Editorial
Calif. prison health care case heads for showdown
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Controller John Chiang continued their game of brinksmanship Monday with a federal judge in a dispute over improving health care for California prison inmates.
U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson said Monday that he will proceed with a contempt-of-court hearing in coming weeks against the administration for not providing money sought by the court’s appointed receiver to finance the improvements. The state, meanwhile, argued that the court cannot unilaterally seize the money, but must negotiate the sum with lawmakers and specify how the money will be spent. The conflict points to a constitutional clash over the boundaries of federalism and state sovereignty.
The tragedy is that California officials have allowed the situation to so seriously deteriorate, even as an average of one inmate per week dies because of lack of adequate health care, while the government has continued irresponsibly spending money for arbitrary and wasteful purposes.
We generally side with states against the federal government in such jurisdictional disputes. But the administration’s stance looks disingenuous with this 11th-hour change in courtroom strategy.
Judge Henderson ruled nearly three years ago that one inmate per week was dying because of prisons’ medical neglect, and put the prison system in federal receivership. The court-appointed receiver asked the judge to order California to pay $8 billion over the next two years to finance construction of new hospital beds, including $250 million immediately.
“It’s unprecedented in our nation’s history where a court ... would try to take $250 million from the state treasury,” said Assistant Attorney General Daniel Powell, representing the administration.
But the prison receiver’s legal counsel argued that the state lost its right to raise the sovereignty issue after repeatedly agreeing to help fix the problems. Moreover, legislators appropriated $250 million last year as part of a $7.4 billion prison and jail construction program.
State officials should cooperate fully, as the governor insists he wants to do. They should provide the money needed to fix years of their own neglect that in our view has bordered on the criminal. If they don’t, Judge Henderson should find them in contempt.
Copyright 2008 The Orange County Register (California)