Saturday, January 26, 2008

Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead

In California, prison health care advocates woke up with a smile to discover their long nightmare was over: Robert Sillen has been fired.

From the Los Angeles Times story:

A federal judge Wednesday abruptly fired the man he had appointed to fix the multimillion-dollar problems of medical care in the state's prisons, after determining the effort was moving too slowly and in too confrontational a manner.

[...]

Since taking the post, formally known as the receiver, Sillen has dramatically increased state spending on prison medical care, largely by bringing salaries up to market levels. Sillen added about $300 million a year and sought to add another $500 million in next year's budget. In addition, he requested more than $800 million for new construction over several years and was working on a $3-billion plan for 5,000 long-term medical beds, state officials said.

But he also frequently clashed with others in his orbit. He jousted with lawmakers and froze out lawyers for inmates. He suggested he should also control the hiring of prison guards, and he blasted the $7.7-billion prison reform package approved by the Legislature last year as a bad idea.

Henderson praised some aspects of Sillen's tenure, saying he had "successfully used his unique skills and bold, creative leadership style to investigate, confront and break down many of the barriers that existed at the inception of the receivership."

But his order removing Sillen also expressed frustration with the pace of progress and implicitly criticized Sillen's uncompromising attitude. The job now needs "a collaborative style of leadership," the judge wrote.

Ouch!

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