Prison hospital 'lemon' could be Kern's lemonade
Send that lemon to Kern County! Business and political leaders in San Joaquin County and Stockton bellow that state prison officials have stuck them with a big fat lemon.
They say plans to build a prison hospital near Stockton will hurt the local economy, drain medical workers from local hospitals and promote San Joaquin County as the state's prison "gulag."
Keep in mind that even after the 1,734-bed hospital for mentally and physically ill prisoners is built, Kern will still have more prisons than San Joaquin. So which county really is the "gulag"?
Our northern neighbors are bellyaching about the construction of a hospital that will employ 3,000 people -- highly paid medical personnel, support staff and correctional officers -- and pump nearly $300 million annually into the local economy. Building the hospital is expected to take two years and will create hundreds of construction jobs.
Those are all meaningful shots in any community's economic arm. Too bad Stockton and San Joaquin County don't see it that way.
Since Kern already is California's designated prison county, you might wonder why we were passed over for this bit of frosting on the prison cake? Wouldn't it make sense to put a hospital for state prisoners close to the highest concentration of prisoners?
Last week, J. Clark Kelso, the federal receiver for California Prison Health Care Services, and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Director Matt Cate signed an agreement approving the Stockton hospital site.
Kelso has orders from the federal court to improve prison medical care, which has been ruled so lacking as to be unconstitutional. Kelso has been wrangling with state prison officials over his budget-busting proposal to build several prison hospitals across the state, creating 10,000 beds. After months of negotiating, they settled on just one sub-acute hospital near Stockton.
Since lawsuits and environmental challenges loom over the Stockton selection, maybe Kern's business and political leaders should raise their collective hands and shout: "Build it here!" Kern can use the highly paid jobs and infusion of $300 million a year.
And there's a major side benefit: Locating a large prison hospital in Kern might actually expand medical services to local residents.
Kern officials have been lobbying UC Merced to locate a portion of its proposed medical school at Kern Medical Center. In these dire economic times, it is a stretch to believe a medical school at UC Merced will be funded at all. It's another stretch to believe the university would reach this far south for a partner.
Kern Medical Center already has teaching partnerships with Southern California medical schools. Likely a partnership could be formed with a prison hospital to expand teaching programs.
And like the "faculty doctors" now working at KMC, prison doctors might also moonlight in the community, expanding local medical services.
No matter how loud they scream, Stockton may be stuck with this first prison hospital.
But since the original plan was to build several hospitals and create 10,000 beds, Kern's leaders should go after the next one. Might as well enjoy some lemonade.
