Federal courts this week rejected two attempts by California to get out of a federal court order to provide expensive improvements to the state’s prison health care system, the Associated Press reported.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson rejected the state’s request to remove the federal court-appointed receiver, J. Clark Kelso, whose plan to bring the prison health system into constitutional compliance includes $8 billion in new facilities that would be funded with bonds.
The health system has been under a receiver’s control since 2006, when Henderson found that health care in California prisons was gravely inadequate, years after the state agreed to a federal court settlement calling for improvements.
On Wednesday, a federal appeals court refused on procedural grounds to block hearings to determine if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should be held in contempt for refusing to provide funds for the receiver’s health care program.
Kelso has demanded a $250 million down payment for the health facilities program, but the Schwarzenegger administration has refused to comply, arguing that the receiver is overstepping his bounds.
