California Regains Control Of Second Prison's Health Care

(AP) — California is regaining responsibility for providing medical care at a second state prison as it slowly makes progress toward ending a decade of federal control.

J. Clark Kelso, the federal court-appointed receiver, on Thursday turned operations at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad back over to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The prison holds more than 5,000 inmates.

In June, Kelso returned health care at Folsom State Prison to the state.

But U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco said a year ago that the state must successfully operate all 34 adult institutions for a year before he considers ending a long-running class action lawsuit.

The state inspector general has found that a third of the dozen prisons he has inspected still are providing inadequate care.