ShareThisSACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Republican lawmakers have rejected a $7 billion plan to add 10,000 new health care beds to California's prison system, an action Democrats predicted will lead to early inmate releases and a gaping new budget hole.
The plan, conceived by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and federal receiver J. Clark Kelso, was intended to help the state provide constitutional levels of health care to prisoners in two federal class-action cases.
It called for the state to issue $6.9 billion in bonds to build the 10,000 beds.
Kelso, who has judicial authority to address the problem, said in a letter Thursday that he will get the money with or without lawmakers' approval, even if it means taking it directly from California's already cash-strapped budget.
He said he needs $70 million out of the general fund "immediately," another $3.43 billion in the 2008-09 fiscal year, $2 billion in 2009-10 and $1.5 billion in 2010-11.
"In order to correct the health care related unconstitutional conditions which plague California's prisons, the receiver requires immediate access to these funds to effectuate timely and cost-effective remedial action," Kelso said in the letter.
Republicans said they shot down Senate Bill 1665 because it represented only a partial solution to California's prison overcrowding crisis.
They said they want fixes made to prison construction plans approved last year, arguing that the state should provide more space for higher-security inmates. That legislation allocated most of the space to lower-security prisoners.
Democrats said prisoners could be freed as a result of Republican votes . They said the federal courts could order inmate releases if they are not convinced the state is working to correct conditions in the prisons.
The Senate voted 24-15 in favor of the measure, but it needed two-thirds approval, or 27 votes, to pass. The house's 15-member Republican caucus killed the bill by voting 14-0 against it.
E-mail Andy Furillo at afurillo(at)sacbee.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com
