By snoadmin
State governments are not known for being cost-efficient. In that regard, they’re kind of like “metrosexual” consumer practices. Instead of buying the cheap Garnier 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner from K-Mart, they waste money on the high-end Redken For Men designer shampoo that works no better than the cheap stuff.
Well, it’s this “metrosexual” mentality that’s causing our prison healthcare system to be so poorly funded.
Because California has been wasting tax dollars on an expensive drug and health care equipment purchasing system for more than 10 years, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger now wants to spend $7 billion to bring prison health facilities up to federal standards.
During the past decade, Californians have been generating a great deal of money for the prison health care system. In fact, an article in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin from 2003 reported that an estimated $263.1 million in taxpayer money went toward prison health costs that year alone.
This staggering amount of money was an increase of about $167 million from 1998.
Reports released in 2000 and 2002 by the state auditor attributed this steep rise in tax dollars to the inefficient way each of the state’s 33 prisons purchased drugs and healthcare equipment.
In the report, Chief Deputy Auditor Steve Hendrickson noted that the state could reduce spending on the prison health care system by millions of dollars if the government would simply invest in programs that would allow the prisons to purchase their drugs and equipment in bulk, rather than individually.
Had the state implemented necessary changes when the first two reports were released in the early part of this century, the millions of dollars saved could have been used to maintain the quality of the prison health facilities that we are now ordered to repair.
Because so many of our tax dollars were going toward this wasteful purchasing system, and not toward the regular maintenance of basic medical equipment, however, prisons have been negligent in providing functional bare essentials, like medical and mental-health beds. A report on cbs5.com stated that an inmate a week dies due to neglect or malpractice.
By not making these simple changes eight years ago, we are now forced to invest billions of dollars that we don’t have to fix a problem we shouldn’t have had in the first place. We’re now in a position where we have no choice but to spend more money on prison health facilities.
All who are aware of the current budget fiasco in California can make an intelligent guess as to the source of that needed revenue. If we sustain archaic government policies that allow antiquated prison health care tactics to go unchecked, we inevitably drain education and critical social services.
Allowing people to die in prison without proper medical attention is a violation of basic human rights.
But we need better oversight and accountability for how taxpayer money is spent.
Maybe next time the state will stop wasting money on expensive systems that don’t work, when better, more cost-efficient plans are obviously available.
Then, again, some are still paying big bucks at the salon for that Euro-Mullet hairdo, even though the Supercuts in the mall has been giving discounts on that haircut since “MacGyver” was cancelled.
