EDITORIAL BILKING THE PUBLIC PRISON REFORMER MAKES HIMSELF RICH.

MAKING money off of taxpayers is way too easy, according to the audit of the $33 million paid to the people charged with revamping medical care in the state's prisons.

To begin with, there was the salary of Bob Sillen, the man who was appointed by a judge in 2006 to be the receiver of California's prison system.

Sillen was paid $52,000 a month, a sum that many taxpayers would be happy to earn in a year. But that was just the beginning of the shameless bilking of the public treasury by Sillen and his staff.

The state Office of the Inspector General also found that about two-thirds of the staff earned six-figure salaries, and a dozen made more than $225,000.

Sillen's office spent $219,000 to give his employees extra money to buy their own health insurance, even though they got insurance paid through the state, and spent lavishly on meals and reimbursements.

Sillen has since been removed by the same judge who appointed him, and replaced with a law professor with an impeccable reputation.

But you can bet the conditions that allowed Sillen to bilk the public have not been changed.