Prison System Sets Record in Lawsuit Payouts

California’s prison system has spent an all-time high of $27.5 million settling lawsuits filed against it, records show.

Miscalculated budgeting, sexual harassment, questionable shootings and inadequate medical treatment combined to send state Department of Corrections’ payout costs soaring.

The 1997-98 payouts topped by 22% the previous year’s then-record total, which was more than twice the 1995-96 amount.

The single biggest hit over the past half-decade--$10.1 million--was awarded in June to the cities of Adelanto, Coalinga, Delano, Folsom and Shafter over cuts that Department of Corrections budget writers forced on community correctional facilities in those towns in the 1992-93 fiscal year.

Corrections employees took in nearly $6.9 million in settlements and awards over the past two years in suits filed over working conditions.

Three female correctional officers at the California Men’s Colony won $4 million in a sexual harassment lawsuit last year in San Luis Obispo County.

Most of the payouts resolved lawsuits over alleged abuses or improprieties that occurred earlier this decade.

The suits raised issues of excessive force and psychiatric care at Pelican Bay State Prison, overall conditions of confinement at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, mental health care for prisoners throughout the system, and health care delivery at the California Correctional Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and other women’s prisons.

Lawsuits are continuing to cost the agency millions this year, with plaintiffs winning nearly $13 million in awards and settlements through the first six months of the 1998-99 fiscal year.

As of last week, there still were about 1,650 lawsuits pending against the prison system.