This report concludes that overall, Corrections¿ payments for hospital care services have risen $59.4 million from FY1998-99 through 2002-03, and grew at an average rate of 21% per year, outpacing the nat. consumer price index average of 8% annual growth for hospital services during this same period. The reasons for this growth can be attributed to the combination of more expensive health care and to Corrections¿ increased use of contracted hospital facilities. Analysis indicates that increases in its inpatient hospital payments are driven primarily by more expensive services, whereas increases in its outpatient hospital payments are driven by increases in both the price of services and number of hospital visits. Charts and tables.

Corrections¿ expenditures increased by 32% in the past 3 years to $10 billion; however, its ability to determine the impact various factors such as overcrowding, the transition of the health care function to a fed. court-appointed receiver, escalating overtime costs, and the presence of aging inmates have on the cost of its operations is limited by a lack of information. Nearly 25% of California¿s inmate population is incarcerated under the three strikes law, which requires individuals to serve longer terms. This report estimates that the increase in sentence length for inmates incarcerated under the three strikes law will cost the State $19.2 billion for the additional time these inmates are sentenced to serve. Charts and tables.