“California Prison Reform: Inmates, I.T, and Health Care” is our site of the day

CIO Magazine, aimed at information technology executives, has published a series of articles on the role that computer technology and electronic records can, and in their opinion should, serve in the delivery of health care in the California state prison system.

“California Prison Reform: Inmates. I.T, and Health Care” is a series of articles that contain a surprising amount of information and analysis going beyond the technological realm and describing the prison’s problems more globally. With the Schwarzenegger Administration proposing an additional $7 billion in spending to upgrade the prison health system and prevent a federal court takeover of the prisons, these articles are definitely worth checking out. There is a slide show with pictures and text about San Quentin and the particular problems and circumstances encountered there.

One article is “Can Technology Fix California Prison Health Care?” which is digested as” Inside California prisons, substandard medical care kills one inmate every six days. IT is part of the court-ordered prescription to ensure doctors do no more harm.” This lengthy piece contains links to court decisions and the details of problems noted by U.S. District Court Judge Henderson. One section, “Typewriters and Dot-Matrix Printers,” has the following passage: “For years, in some cases, for decades, several prisons lacked working phones for the medical staff. Others relied on antique Brother typewriters to fill in forms and leaky, lightless trailers in which to store them. Prison employees soaked printer ribbons in ink by hand because the dot-matrix printers were so old that manufacturers no longer made replacement parts.”

There is also a time line; a description of new prison receiver Clark Kelso’s plans to use IT to speed up the deployment of technology; and a letter from the editor of CIO, “Without buy-in, IT can't reform California's prisons.”

These articles have already received a number of comments from readers.