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California is crafting weaker heat protections for prisons than other workplaces, citing billions in costs to cool aging institutions as climate and health risks increase. It’s a second-class standard, health and safety advocates say, and would leave correctional workers more susceptible to heat illness.
Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News journalists made the rounds on national or local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Prisoners with severe medical conditions can be granted compassionate release, but without a long-term care facility willing to accept them, many continue to wait in prison as their conditions worsen.
Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
After decades of unsuccessful efforts to improve California prison conditions, advocates and a federal judge are betting that bonuses and better work accommodations will attract and keep the mental health professionals needed to better treat prisoners.
Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News journalists made the rounds on national and local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Correctional officers often dictate end-of-life care for incarcerated people who are terminally ill. Most states either don’t have a formal policy or are given leeway — a big concern for families and advocates, as the incarcerated population rapidly ages.
The legislation calls for a new mental health facility in eastern Montana, upgrades to existing state facilities, expansion of community services, and revisions to commitment procedures.
Like local jails nationwide, Montana’s small holding facilities have become institutions of last resort as patients in mental health crisis stall in backlogs, waiting for beds at the state-run mental hospital.
California has unilaterally halted a court-ordered medical parole program. Instead, it’s sending its most incapacitated prisoners back to state lockups or releasing them early. The change is drawing protests from attorneys representing prisoners and the author of the medical parole law, who argue prisoners’ health may be compromised.
A federal judge has named a receiver to run California’s troubled prison mental health system. Colette Peters, a reformist with a rocky tenure as director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, will have four months to develop a plan to adequately care for tens of thousands of prisoners.
President Donald Trump ordered a halt to gender-affirming medical care for transgender prisoners in federal custody, and to housing trans women in female prisons. The new policies raise alarms for a formerly incarcerated trans woman. She said the order denies lifesaving medical care and creates a road map for rape.
It’s common for young people leaving jails and prisons to end up back behind bars, often after lapses related to untreated mental health issues or substance abuse. A new law is aimed at getting them on Medicaid before they’re released. But the government coordination required to make it happen is significant.
A federal judge has found top California officials in contempt for failing to hire enough mental health professionals to adequately treat tens of thousands of incarcerated people with serious mental disorders. The judge ordered the state to pay $112 million in fines.
To reduce recidivism, some rural counties are hiring community health workers or peer support specialists to connect people leaving custody to mental health resources, substance use treatment, medical services, and jobs.
After rejecting proposed rules to protect millions of workers in sweltering warehouses, steamy kitchens, and other hot workplaces, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has offered a compromise to allow the protections to take effect this summer. But state and local correctional workers — and prisoners — would have to wait even longer.
Thirty years after prisoners with disabilities sued and 25 years after a federal court first ordered accommodations, a judge found that California prison and parole officials still are not doing enough to help deaf and blind prisoners — in part because they are not providing readily available technology such as video recordings and laptop computers.
California has commissioned an exhaustive study of whether its prisons provide a constitutional level of mental health care, which it could use to try to end one of the lawsuits that have federal courts overseeing the state’s prisons. But corrections officials won’t disclose even basic details of the consultants’ contract, including its cost to taxpayers.
A court expert reported that California prisons continue to lag on 14 of 15 suicide prevention measures, and even regressed in some areas. The state could face more than $40 million in fines after a federal judge warned more than a year ago that she would impose penalties for each violation.
Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½Ò•îl Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
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