The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

"We have fully explored and exhausted every avenue for securing this funding in a manner that least affects California's budget and immediate cash needs," Kelso said at a press conference at his downtown Sacramento headquarters. "But the state's leaders have failed to act. Therefore, it is with great reluctance and yet a sense of firm conviction that today I seek the federal court's intervention to secure this funding."

Kelso said he wants $3.1 billion in the 2008-09 fiscal year. The request would increase the projected $15.2 billion spending shortfall for the year by another 20 percent.

He said Schwarzenegger and Chiang "have repeatedly refused to provide timely construction funding to the receiver," which Kelso said "stands in stark contrast to their recent public assertions of extraordinary powers to control state spending regarding state employee salaries and other obligations."

Amid the budget crunch, the governor has sought to cut salaries on tens of thousands of state workers to the federal minimum wage. The controller has said he will refuse to cut the workers' pay and that he will continue to cut them checks at their regular wages.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear issued a statement today that the administration "will continue to work cooperatively with the receiver and the Legislature to move forward in a fiscally responsible way to provide the necessary funding for the Receiver's efforts."

Chiang, in a prepared statement, said he needs legislative approval or a court order to compel him to make any payments. He said the state will have to pay for the receiver's medical plan "one way or another" and that lease revenue bonds would be the most "fiscally appropriate."

Kelso blasted the Legislature for failing so far in its current session to provide bond funding for his project. He singled out the state Senate's Republican caucus for holding up the bonds because of its concern that last year's prison construction bond plan hasn't taken hold.

A spokeswoman for Senate GOP leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto did not have an immediate comment on the receiver's motion.

Kelso flashed anger in answering a question on why he is taking his legal action now, with the Legislature wrangling with an overdue budget and in the final weeks of the 2007-08 legislative session.

"I indicated to the Legislature that I did not want to be drawn into the budget vortex where late-night deals are made, without public consideration, and without time for thoughtful consideration," he said. "I don't want to be drawn into that. They've had plenty of time since (the failure of the bond bill) to act on this. I've waited really as long as I can wait. I do have a serious cash flow issue I need to get resolved."

He said he needs an immediate $360 million to keep the construction planning process moving forward.

Kelso's medical plan for the prisons includes upgrades to health care facilities at all 33 state prisons as well as the seven new facilities he hopes to build in Folsom, Stockton, Ventura, Chino, Solano County, Whittier and San Diego. He also has since been charged by the courts to oversee judicially-mandated improvements to dental and mental health facilities in the prison system.

The receiver is operating under a federal court order, never challenged by the Schwarzenegger administration, that gives him power over state prison medical operations that now cost $2 billion a year, not counting the capital construction programs.
His office was created after U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson in San Francisco found that an inmate a week was dying due to medical neglect and ruled that prison medical care in California violated constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.