Okay, let’s review the facts. California still has no budget because the Republicans and the Democrats in the state legislature can’t agree on….well…. on much of anything. In particular they can’t agree on how to deal with the state’s $17.2 billion deficit.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has tried just about everything to break the impasse, most recently he resorted to the gubernatorial equivalent of “Get me a budget or I’m going to shoot this dog (except there were no dogs involved, only the state employees whose salaries he hostage-ized.)
But it didn’t work.
Then—-once again proving the old adage, “Just When You Think Things Can’t Get Worse, the Universe Reminds You That They Definitely Can”—along comes a guy named J. Clark Kelso who informs the governor and the state legislature that he has filed a motion to take $8 billion away from the state treasury over the next five years, $3.1 billion of that eight during this fiscal year.
And Kelso isn’t kidding.
Clark Kelso is the man who was named by US District Court Judge Thelton Henderson to act as receiver for California’s disastrously broken and overburdened prison health care system, which has been killing people at an unseemly clip.
Henderson siezed the prison health care system back in 2005 to fix what he termed ” deplorable conditions.”
But after three years of requests, demands and finally threats, the state government has failed to implement the fixes that Kelso, Henderson, and the receiver before Kelso, have insisted are needed to bring the facilities up to Constitutional standards (so that California isn’t, like, violating the 8th Amendment daily).
Moreover, if the Gov and the Lege don’t fork over the money peaceably and immediately, Kelso said yesterday he will ask Judge Henderson to hold them in contempt and fine all concerned $2 million a day until they get with the program.
Will Kelso and Henderson really make the state government give them the money? Oh, heck, yeah.
It seems that part of the problem is that, twice, the Republicans have blocked the move to pass a bond in order to pay for the needed health care money without harming the state’s cash flow.
The LA Times, which has some of the best reporting on the issue, quotes one such Republican hold out.
“Is Clark Kelso out of his mind?” state Sen. Jeff Denham (R-Atwater) asked in a news release Wednesday mocking the receiver. “The idea of providing $8 billion for state-of-the-art healthcare for murderers like Charles Ng, Richard Allen Davis and Scott Peterson is sheer lunacy.”
Here’s the thing, Jeff— (may I call you, Jeff?)—when you lock people up, you have no choice but to provide health care for them, especially when they get old, sick and infirm. If you’re not fond of this plan, try instituting sentencing reform so you have fewer people in prison to house, feed and doctor.
Stay tuned. The matter will go before a very fed up Judge Henderson in September.
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(Photo of Kelso by Brian Baer, the Sacramento Bee.)
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This is more judicial overstepping by justices completely unqualified to manage anything, including their own dockets. There isn’t necessarily a correlation between excessive spending and improvement in quality.
U.S. District Judge Russell Clark of Kansas City was finally convinced of this after he wasted nearly $2 billion on schools after increasing taxes, while denying the taxpayers the right to vote on the taxes and circumventing the city and state elected officials. (Here is the article. For California folks, especially read the postscript.)
Of course, though, judges may force people to drop out of school systems that they manage, but they won’t do anything to discourage people from joining the prisons that they want to turn into country clubs.
Hey, we could give prisoners vouchers and let them choose their own prisons!
I checked out Kelso’s qualifications. His cv is one big stint in government. I’d hire a successful private businessman who knew how to stretch a dollar rather than beg for more.
File this one under, I just know I can have my cake and eat it, too. Translation: I just know we can campaign on tough sentencing standards and being tough on crime, and I’m sure it won’t cost us one penny more to do so. Republicans just love, love, love the free lunch concept; and, in the last 8 years they’ve elevated it to a performance art. I sure hope we get a Democratic Pres, and Democratic Congress. The populace loves their social programs, and at least the Dems understand pay as you go.
The Dems understand letting child rapists go free.
I should say so.
But, Celeste, I bet that this story didn’t even cause a ripple at Bennington College, did it?
I know of some ways to keep people like this out of prison–kill or castrate them. But, this guy deserved to be treated in prison like he treated the little girl.
Thanks, liberals.
Oh, get a grip, Woody. This is a total red herring. The state flipped out over this insane (2006) sentence and the Governor of Vermont, called for the judge to resign, saying he wasn’t fit to be on the bench. (Duh!)
The sentence was changed to 3-10 years (which is still too short).
By the way, in most states, with determinate sentencing, such a thing simply would not be possible, even if you had a nut case judge.
Celeste, that red herring judge used all the same excuses as you for his “reasoning.” Given the backing of liberals, this isn’t a red herring but a portend of what to expect when left-wing idealists with bad ideas are in charge.