SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge said Thursday that he would seize control of prison healthcare from the state and place it under a receiver, declaring that "extreme measures" were needed to fix a system that kills one inmate each week through medical incompetence or neglect.
U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson said that despite repeated warnings from his court and the "good intentions" of some state officials, the Department of Corrections continues to allow sick prisoners to die "for no acceptable reason." The judge said he would soon issue a written order outlining details of the receivership and begin discussing potential receivers with lawyers in the case.
Attorneys on both sides called the decision historic, saying they believed it marks the first time in the nation that a government operation the size of California's prison medical care system is to be placed under a federal receiver.
In 1995 the District of Columbia's jails were assigned to a receiver for five years. That system has 1,700 inmates. The California Department of Corrections' healthcare network serves more than 163,000 prisoners, employs 6,000 workers and has an annual budget of $1.1 billion.
Henderson, in a quietly passionate 25-minute speech from the bench, said "horrifying details" presented in a series of hearings he convened over the last month had filled him with a sense of urgency.
He said he believed "nothing short of a receiver" could halt the deaths and other harm inflicted on California convicts who fall ill.
The judge said he was especially alarmed by the "uncontested statistic," provided by a court-appointed expert, "that a prisoner needlessly dies an average of roughly once a week."
Henderson said that anyone "would have to be shocked, as I certainly was," by that fact.
By putting the system in receivership, Henderson effectively shifts power for all decisions related to inmate care -- from how many nurses should work a given shift to when a cancer patient receives treatment at a community hospital -- to the federal court.
The receiver, who will report directly to the judge, will be empowered to order fixes now delayed or thwarted by Civil Service rules, collective bargaining agreements and bureaucratic red tape, lawyers said.
Attorneys said they could not speculate how long the receivership might last or what it would cost. Henderson said it would certainly be a "multiyear effort."
