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Judge: California Must Pay For Prison Health Care

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Oct 6, 2008 2:56 pm US/Pacific

Judge: California Must Pay For Prison Health Care

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― A federal judge has scolded California officials for failing to provide the billions of dollars a court-appointed receiver says is needed to upgrade the state's prison health care system.

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson made it clear during a Monday hearing that he expects California to pay $8 billion for seven new inmate medical facilities.

Medical care in California's prisons is so bad it has been ruled unconstitutional, as federal courts found it was responsible for killing inmates.

The judge says he is likely to order the state to pay $250 million as a first installment to demonstrate good faith. Kelso says he needs that amount to start designing three new medical and mental health units.

He says he will need more than $3 billion before July 1 to begin building them next year.

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