The prison medical care czar's $8 billion plan to build 10,000 long-term care beds and other health facilities for inmates will cost taxpayers an additional $2.3 billion a year in operation costs, according to a draft internal state corrections department report obtained by The Bee.
Most of the $230,000 cost per inmate will result from a staffing ratio of 1.4 employees per prisoner - including art therapists, music therapists, beauticians and barbers, the report said. It "will far exceed any per inmate cost" of any correctional agency in the country, according to the report. It currently costs an average of $43,000 a year to house an inmate in California.
The Oct. 11 report, identified as a "supplemental analysis" of the proposed health care expansion plans, said corrections officials have "fundamental concerns" that have not yet been addressed by receiver J. Clark Kelso or his staff. It called the added costs "staggering."
The unsigned report was presented on the letterhead of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matt Cate. One of the report's key findings was that Kelso "has failed to establish" standards on the constitutional minimum level of health care required for inmates, how the prison system is violating them "and how the proposed improvements will remedy them."
"It is quite possible that CDCR is already providing the minimum 'constitutional level of care' with the extensive amount of monies provided to the Receiver over the last two years," the report said. "Recent key health indicators are favorable in nearly every category."
Corrections spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said today the agency would not comment on the report.
"This is a draft report of a draft plan," Hidalgo said.
Kelso failed through the Legislature to get lawmakers to approve the $8 billion in lease revenue bonds for seven long-term care facilities and improvements in existing medical facilities at the state's 33 prisons. He has since filed a motion in federal court asking U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson to hold Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Controller John Chiang in contempt for refusing to disperse the money. Henderson on Monday ordered the state to turn over $250 million to Kelso for the project's planning costs by Wednesday or he will hold a contempt hearing on Chiang and Schwarzenegger.
In a prepared statement, Kelso said he is disappointed "with the unauthorized leak" of the report. He said the report was meant as an analysis for Cate of the receiver's "second draft Facility Program Statement." That 800-page document has been filed under seal in federal court in San Francisco. Kelso said the "FPS" is now "outdated."
"Substantial modifications will continue to be made over the next several months," Kelso said.
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