Construction on Prison Health Care Facility Ahead of Schedule
At a San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, a project manager said that construction on a new prison health care facility is ahead of schedule and on track to receive its first inmate by July 2013, the Stockton Record reports (Johnson, Stockton Record, 11/21).
Background
About six years ago, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson appointed federal receiver J. Clark Kelso to oversee the state's prison health care system after determining that an average of one inmate per week died as a result of malpractice or neglect.
In April, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation released a plan for reorganizing the state's prisons and ending federal oversight.
Last month, federal officials said they will begin transferring select administrative functions for California's prison health care system to state officials (California Healthline, 10/25).
Facility Details
At the meeting, Andrew Freeman -- project manager -- said that the estimated $900 million, 1.2 million square-foot California Health Care Facility will have 1,722 beds. He added that it will employ about 2,800 full-time workers.
According to Freeman, the facility could be fully operational by the end of 2013.
He added that the neighboring DeWitt Nelson Correctional Annex is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2014. Freeman said that the $113 million project would add 1,133 additional inmate beds.
According to the Stockton Record, both projects include 82 separate buildings with 1.49 million square feet for health, housing and administrative services (Stockton Record, 11/21). This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.