Prison's medical care deemed OK despite pressure to close it

AP — Medical care at a prison east of Los Angeles has been deemed adequate despite claims that the facility is unsafe and should be closed.

The state inspector general on Friday gave the California Rehabilitation Center at Norco a passing grade on health care, allowing federal officials to consider returning control to the state.

An inspection determined that the prison clinics lack sanitation but overall the lockup provides acceptable medical care.

Democratic Sen. Loni Hancock of Berkeley, who heads the Senate Public Safety Committee, has called on Gov. Jerry Brown to close the prison. She says it's so dilapidated that it threatens the health and safety of nearly 2,400 inmates as well as employees.

Brown says no decision will be made until next year.