SAN DIEGO -- Prisoner healthcare is a hot topic in the debate over whether or not to follow a proposed decision by the federal court to let thousands of California state prison inmates go free.

The ruling was based on what some called cruel and unusual conditions, so the 10News I-Team went behind prison walls to see what medical treatment prisoners receive.

There are six medical clinics at Richard J. Donovan prison in south San Diego county.

On the day the I-Team went behind prison walls, 90 inmates had already been examined for a variety of ailments.

An MRI truck was parked outside on prison grounds. The I-Team was told MRI screening costs $6,000 per patient. Vans are available to transport prisoner patients to area hospitals or clinics for treatments. For approximately 30 to 36 officers, their sole job is to transport inmates to outside medical facilities.

Inmates have access to highly regarded hospitals, like Scripps Green in La Jolla for chemotherapy. The I-Team is also told inmates receive only name brand medications, not generics.

Adequate healthcare is a constitutionally protected right behind bars, but a federal court has ruled the state is failing to deliver.

The court put an appointed federal receiver in charge of medical clinics, stripping the Department of Corrections of that authority, but according to a panel of three federal judges, improvements have failed, primarily because California prisons are so overcrowded.

The judges tentatively ruled in February that thousands of prisoners must be released.