After years of failing to prevent preventable inmate deaths, the California Department of Corrections health system was placed under a federal receivership in 2005. Soon after, state officials claimed that the system had reached an “acceptable standard,” and that they were ready to take control back from the feds.
Over the course of a year, Southern California Public Radio’s Julie Small has been digging deep into the system to determine if it’s really as acceptable as the Schwarzenegger administration claims. You can see the whole series here. There are five main installments, four of which come with sidebars. Everything comes in text and audio with a little video and photo mixed in.
- Part 1: California’s budget woes thwart improvements to prison medicine
- Part 2: Chino prison sees some improvements in medical care
- Part 3: California inmates still suffer from lapses in prison medical care
- Part 4: Vacaville’s California Medical Facility – The ‘gold standard’ for prison medical care in California
- Part 5: Fewer improvements planned for prison medical care
Chino Prison’s medical system from 89.3 KPCC on Vimeo.
ReportingOnHealth.org has a conversation with Small about the subject.
Related
Hear Small talk about her reporting process and the difficulties of covering prison health with our friends at Reporting on Health, and check out this related Q and A.
