On January 23, 2008, a federal judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that the healthcare provided in California prisons does not meet constitutional standards even though medical services have improved significantly since the court assumed oversight of the system in 2005. Judge Thelton Henderson said that the prison system needs new oversight to help implement planned improvements and to reintegrate prison leadership into the prison system, and he appointed law professor J. Clark Kelso as receiver effective immediately to achieve those goals.



Learn more about the judicial oversight of the California prison system and health care from the JURIST news archive.