Agreement close on inmate healthcare plan

The overseer of healthcare in state prisons has agreed to dramatically scale back an $8-billion plan to build inmate medical facilities in a deal with Schwarzenegger administration officials who had called for his removal only months ago.

The agreement could be finalized next week. Under the plan, J. Clark Kelso would make significant concessions on a controversial construction plan that led to a battle with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown and legislators over how much to spend on healthcare for prisoners when the state was running out of money.

Two months ago, a federal judge rebuffed a request by those officials to end Kelso’s oversight and return control of the system to the state.

The court-appointed Kelso told reporters Thursday that he would build only two new facilities, one each in the northern and southern parts of the state, with 3,400 beds for sick and mentally ill inmates. Originally, he sought funds for seven projects and 10,000 beds.

The new proposal would cost $1.9 billion, about a third of the initial price tag, plus an unspecified amount to upgrade medical clinics at the state’s 33 prisons. Kelso said the new plan is smaller because it is based only on what the state is likely to require over the next four years, instead of the 10-year forecast he first used.

“It’s clear we can still satisfy all the medical and mental health needs . . . while having to build only two facilities,” he said.

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson seized control of the prison medical system in 2006, saying inmates were dying behind bars unnecessarily and the care they received was so poor it violated their rights.

State corrections chief Matthew Cate, who had criticized Kelso’s original plan, which included yoga and bingo, said the scaled-down version was appropriate.

“We wanted to make sure it wasn’t a Cadillac model, that we built them in an efficient way, that there was just enough to hold our most serious inmates and still provide them with care,” Cate said.

Still, lawmakers would have to authorize borrowing for Kelso’s plan, and it is unclear whether they will. Last year, Republican legislators blocked Kelso’s original proposal. Although the new one is smaller, state finances are far worse now, with Schwarzenegger proposing to cut funding that provides more than 900,000 children with healthcare.

Kelso was the second medical overseer appointed by Henderson. Like predecessor Robert Sillen, Kelso had become mired in conflict with the state. But in recent months, he had softened his tone and adopted a conciliatory approach.

The tentative deal would bring prison medical employees under the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation instead of the receivership run by Kelso, who would retain authority over them.

Kelso said he and Henderson would assess whether the state is ready to control inmate care when Schwarzenegger leaves office in 18 months.

--

michael.rothfeld@latimes.com

eric.bailey@latimes.com