The Hall of Shame award today goes to San Quentin for its prison health clinics. A new report by independent examiners shows that despite court orders, they operate in filthy conditions. San Quentin should be closed. It will be interesting to see Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger's reaction to the report. If he's serious about prison reform, this is a good place to start.

Doctors and nurses misdiagnosed illnesses, gave patients the wrong medications, neglected them for months and even years or delayed sending them to emergency rooms until they were fatally ill, the experts discovered.

The examiners watched a dentist examine inmate after inmate while wearing the same pair of gloves. Records were in such disarray that doctors reported that they could not find medical files for at least 30% of the inmates they examined.

Based on visits to the prison earlier this year, the experts' April 8 report documented filthy clinics and patient housing. Dental examinations are done in a place without light or water; inmates are initially evaluated in a room without a sink for washing hands; nurses until recently used a broom closet as an examination room; and wheelchair-bound patients cannot roll into the hospital cells on their own because the doors are too narrow.