Don Thompson

Medical parole is reserved for the sliver of California’s 90,000 prisoners who have a “significant and permanent condition” that leaves them “physically or cognitively debilitated or incapacitated” to the point they can’t care for themselves.

More than a third of Californians depend on Medi-Cal for a range of health care coverage. Now the program finds itself in the political crosshairs of federal budget-cutters.

California’s nation-leading $25 minimum wage for health workers will rely on a significant boost in federal funding and exempt thousands of state employees under an agreement that is expected to be approved in the coming days.

The lawsuit is one of several class-action proceedings that have led the courts to assume oversight of the prison system’s treatment of those who are sick or suffer from mental illnesses.