California Prison Health Care Improves; Contract Prisons Lag

Inmate health care at California’s 34 state-run prisons has improved since the state was ordered to make improvements under a 2009 consent decree that also required the state to reduce the inmate population. However, less improvement has occurred at seven private prisons that contract with the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to house another 4,200 inmates.

The status of inmate health care was reported by the state’s medical receiver Clark Kelso to the three-judge panel overseeing the state’s compliance with the terms of the consent decree. The court imposed a consent decree . . .