Reuters
A federal judge on Wednesday allowed for the release of a scathing internal report about the psychiatric care inmates are receiving inside California’s prisons. The report accuses one center of providing treatment that is far below the state mandate and details a series of missteps by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, including patients not getting to appointments on time. According to the report, one inmate was not given medication and ended up ripping out her eye and swallowing it. “CDCR has a broken system of care because information is not accurately reported upon, and reliable commonsensical action has not been taken,” the 161-page report from Dr. Michael Golding, the chief psychiatrist for the prison system, said. “I have documented that CDCR has prevented errors from being fixed, and worse, CDCR has not allowed anyone to know that there has been inaccurate reporting to the courts and to our leadership,” it adds.
The report, which Golding leaked earlier this month, was ordered to be released with some redactions by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller, who is now expected to call the doctor to testify about his findings. Corrections officials have previously declined to comment on the report because it is part of pending litigation, released a statement on Wednesday to reject Golding’s allegations. “The department strongly disagrees with this individual’s allegations, and looks forward to a fair and thorough review and hearing of all the facts,” but CDCR press secretary Vicky Waters said in a statement.