The Daily Delegate

The criminal justice committee has been working on a bill that will help mental health in prisons. This bill will also bring mental health services to prisons and provide unpaid internship opportunities for people looking for medical job opportunities. This allows people more, new to medicinal jobs to gain experience while still under supervision, while not costing the organization any money. The bill’s purpose is to boost mental health of the incarcerated, which in hopes, will lower the incarceration rate. Funding for this bill is proposed to come through a federal loan, which will be repaid through the saving benefits from the bill. Financial benefits come from the lower incarceration rates which will increase the cost savings within the system. This allows the system to save money long-term which can be used to invest in other resources to help the healthcare in prisons.

However, there are multiple challenges. The average annual cost for CDCR was $133,000 per person at the time the 2024-25 budget was enacted. It represents the amount CDCR was budgeted to spend on the average person on prison operations in 2024-25. This provides some helpful insight into how much money the government of California would have to put towards if they introduced student interns as an option in order to increase health.