California inmate dies in Mississippi By Andy Furillo - afurillo@sacbee. com Last Updated 10:08 am PDT Tuesday, May 13, 2008

California's prison medical care receiver is investigating the death of an inmate who was being housed in Mississippi. "I'm told it was an asthma-related death," said receiver's spokesman Rich Kirkland.

Corrections officials identified the inmate as Robert Washington, 41, of San Joaquin County. Washington was serving seven years for vehicle theft. Autopsy results on Washington's April 23 death are still pending, corrections spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said Monday.

Washington died at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler Miss. The prison is owned and operated by the Corrections Corporation of America.

Washington is the second inmate moved under California's out-of-state transfer plan to have died in custody since the program began two years ago. Anthony Kelly, 48, serving eight years on a drug case, died last May from an apparent heart attack while watching a fight involving other inmates.

There are now 3,765 California inmates serving time out of state, Hidalgo said.

State officials embarked on the transfer plan to help relieve pressure in the state's overcrowded prisons. Two public employee unions filed suit to block the transfers. The unions prevailed in Sacramento Superior Court, but the cases are pending on appeal.

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Receiver probes prison contract after inmate dies - sacbee.com This story is taken from Sacbee / Politics. ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- - Receiver probes prison contract after inmate dies By Andy Furillo - afurillo@sacbee. com Published 9:58 am PDT Friday, May 23, 2008

California's prison medical czar will investigate the so-called "long-term viability" of a private prison company's contract with the state because of problems at one of the firm's out-of-state facilities.

In a letter to the Corrections Corporation of America, receiver J. Clark Kelso's top aide cited the death of one California inmate and delayed health care for another at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, Miss.

Chief of staff John Hagar's letter said the receiver's office will send an oversight team to Mississippi on Monday. It is investigating the death April 23 of Robert Washington and what the letter called "delays in the delivery of medical care" to another inmate, identified as Frederick Gusta.

Hagar's letter, dated Wednesday, said the receiver's office plans to meet soon in Sacramento with company officials and that the session "will include a discussion of ... the long-term viability of the contract between the California Department of Corrections and CCA."

"Everything is on the table," receiver's spokesman Luis Patino said Thursday about the contract.

The private prison company houses 3,904 California inmates in six prisons located in Mississippi, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Arizona. The company's two contracts are costing the state $115 million in the current fiscal year.

California corrections officials say the out-of-state program is vital to relieving pressure on the state's system as inmates are jammed into 33 prisons at twice their designed capacity.

Corrections spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said Thursday it would be "premature to react" to Hagar's letter "until there's an investigation complete."

Hidalgo said the state considers the transfer program a "great success" that has allowed California to move inmates out of triple-bunked gymnasiums.

Two public employee unions have sued the state in Sacramento Superior Court to block the transfers on grounds they violated the employees' civil service protections. The unions prevailed. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger' s administration appealed the lower court's rulings. A hearing on the appeal is set for Tuesday in Sacramento.

Inmate Washington, 41, died of cardiac arrest after being stricken by an asthma attack, according to Coahoma County, Miss., chief medical examiner and investigator Scotty Meredith. Washington was serving seven years for vehicle theft.

Meredith said it was his opinion that the medical care at the Tallahatchie County prison was "excellent" but that it took a private ambulance company 35 minutes to respond to the asthma attack.

Washington was taken from the prison to a Coahoma County hospital 12 miles away, in the northwest Mississippi Delta region, about 75 miles south of Memphis, Tenn.

"I don't think anything was wrong (at the prison), but I wasn't there," Meredith said in an interview.

No details were available on Gusta's case, except that he complained of chest pains and also was transported to a local hospital where he is still receiving care, Hidalgo said.

Hidalgo said there also were "some delays" in Gusta's transportation to the hospital.

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