HealthyCal.org

According to Jackson, he deserves to die behind bars. He thought his crime was justified at the time, he says, but his prison sentence left his six children without a father. Photo by Armand Emamdjomeh.

By Armand Emamdjomeh

With the tattoos that appear to cover every inch of his body, Terry Jackson cuts a terrifying figure. At least he would, 20 years ago, before his prison sentence, severe arthritis and AIDS wracked his body. Now the 41-year-old prisoner can barely walk, and seems most comfortable in his bed.

Though he may seem feeble now, Jackson is serving a 25-year-to-life sentence for first degree murder. Jackson is one of more than 2,800 inmates at the California Medical Facility, the only California prison facility with a licensed elderly-care unit and a hospice unit for terminally ill inmates.

The facility is emblematic of the dilemma facing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, as longer sentences and three-strikes requirements lead to an aging prison population – many of whom are serving life sentences and likely to die behind bars. These inmates come at great cost to the state – prisoners’ medical bills can range as high as $2.5 million, according to a report by a federally appointed receiver who oversees the state’s prison health care.

Armand Emamdjomeh originally reported this story with Karen McIntyre and Isabella Cota Schwartz as part of the “Behind Bars” News 21 project at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently a web developer and producer at the Los Angeles Times.

With an aging population and more people gaining insurance coverage thanks to the federal health reform, California might face a shortage of primary care doctors to serve all those who need care. While the number of doctors in the state has kept pace with population in recent years, the number of graduates from California’s eight medical schools has remained relatively flat over the last 15 years, in spite of the 20 percent growth in population.

The University of California, which operates five of the programs, has announced plans to expand enrollment in existing programs in addition to opening two new medical schools.

See a report on the issue from the California Healthcare Foundation here.

Californians, their health insurers and the government spent nearly $200 million on hospital care for air-pollution-related admissions between 2005 and 2007 that could have been avoided if the state met federal clean air standards, according to a new study from the Rand Institute. Using hospital admissions data and air pollution records, the Rand researchers found an estimated 29,000 emergency room visits and hospital admissions that could have been prevented. Of the hospital visits considered preventable, about three-quarters were attributed to the presence of fine particulate matter in the air, known as PM 2.5. The rest were related to levels of ozone in the air. See the full study here.

Photo from flickr.com

The Legislative Analyst’s Office gives two thumbs down to the governor’s proposal for a constitutional amendment that would require the state to spend more on universities than prisons. Why? The office says legislators and the governor can switch spending priorities now if they have the will to do so, and it would be unwise to lock more spending formulas — and less flexibility — into the constitution. The chart above from the LAO is a look at the trend in spending on both programs.

About 2 million Californians who are without insurance now would be eligible for subsidized coverage under the plan being considered in the US House of Representatives, according to UC Berkeley researchers.