Senate Republicans block plan to improve medical care in California prisons

The plan was created by a federal receiver and backed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, who appointed the receiver, wrote a letter last week urging lawmakers to approve it.

But Senate Republicans balked at the bill's high price tag and objected that it had not been coordinated with other plans that could dramatically affect state prisons, such as a proposal for settling a federal court case on overcrowding by reducing the inmate population by tens of thousands.

In two days, some of the same Republican legislators, the Schwarzenegger administration, inmates' lawyers and other parties to the overcrowding case are scheduled to report in federal court whether they agree to the settlement, which would divert some convicted criminals and parole violators into local treatment programs, county jails and alternative forms of incarceration.

Advocates for inmates in the case assert that overcrowding is the main cause of substandard healthcare in California prisons. Republican lawmakers and some local officials have expressed reservations about the proposed deal. A panel of three federal judges is poised to hold a trial that could result in a mass release of prisoners if the settlement talks fail.

The construction program and the settlement proposal are part of an overarching but largely disconnected state effort to bring the sprawling prison system and the care of inmates up to constitutional standards. Both now appear to be in some danger of sinking without legislative support.

"The problem . . . , quite frankly, is the amount of money we're talking about," said state Sen. Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto), who leads the Senate's Republican minority. "We think there are more responsible ways to move forward to get where we need to go and to do it in a much more frugal manner."

Republicans said they needed to make sure that all pending prison overhaul efforts -- including a separate state and local plan approved last year to build more beds -- would be connected.

Democrats said they feared the federal judges monitoring state prisons would not take the refusal to cooperate lightly. Henderson seized prison medical care from state control in 2006.