The U.S. Supreme Court will look at the health care shortfalls of California prisons this fall, and the issue is one of countless headaches that a new governor will inherit in November.

The state's prison health problems won't go away on their own, and leaders will need innovative solutions to address this issue during a state budget crisis. A report last month from the state inspector general found significant problems in 17 prisons reviewed, stating that "nearly all prisons were ineffective at ensuring that inmates receive their medications."

And an excellent five-part series of reports recently from Julie Small at Southern California Public Radio looks deep into this crisis and identifies a few of the initiatives that are working (like officers dedicated to getting prisoners to their doctor's appointments), and a few places where money and time are being wasted (like the lack of a computerized filing system).

"I think the problems really we’re dealing with are truly systemic ones," federal receiver Clark Kelso recently said. "It’s not we’ve got bad clinicians. It’s that they’re working in a Third World environment."

A special panel of federal judges put the state's prison health care system into receivership when it ruled in a class-action suit that the crowding and health care conditions in California prisons were unconstitutional, ordering the release of as many as 40,000 prisoners to rectify the solution. The state has made slow progress on parole and sentencing reforms to keep its prison population near flat -- but more drastic changes to the length of sentences and the handling of parole violations could go a long way to address the problem.

Kelso is the second person to hold the receiver's job, and the state is continuing to fight against the federal court's decision and the receiver's office; the Supreme Court will examine this jurisdictional issue when it hears Schwarzenegger v. Plata in the fall.

Elected leaders are unlikely to provide much relief to prisoners, either. The candidates vying to replace the Governator certainly haven't shown signs of progressive leadership on the issue. Democrat Jerry Brown has fought the receiver as attorney general and has called proposals for health care improvement "wildly excessive." Republican candidate Meg Whitman has said she would send prisoners out of state to cut costs and opposes shorter sentences (a ridiculous blanket statement that misses dozens of nuanced reforms to address overcrowding and the cycles of crime and poverty).

At least the court battles around California's prison health care crisis have brought the issue slightly more into the public eye. Major media outlets have reported on the topic and have called on California to clean up its act. Small recently discussed the issue on a Blog Talk Radio show and was joined by Jan Gurley, a doctor who has done extensive work in this field and writes about the issue. Gurley has a story proposal about prison release, homelessness and health care at the crowd-funded journalism site Spot.us. Chip in a few bucks to help this issue get more coverage.

Watch the KPCC video of a visit to the California Institution for Men by going here.

Image Credit: Mark Hillary