The county’s correctional health services division is asking county leaders to lower the amount of funding for psychiatric services at the Sacramento County Main Jail in exchange for bringing back four medical assistant positions that were cut earlier this summer.

The division, which is part of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, is facing $443,996 in budget cuts. The cuts to the division come from declines in revenue from sales tax and vehicle license fees.

At the same time, the division’s chief, AnnMarie Boylan, wants to rehire four full-time medical assistants. The organizational support that medical assistants provide is key, Boylan told the Supervisors at a county budget hearing Tuesday. Since the four medical assistants were laid off in July, the clinicians have “had a very difficult time staying on top of our inmates’ requests for services,” Boylan said.

The division’s clinical personnel have also raised safety concerns about working alone with ill inmates, Boylan noted. Bringing back assistants would mean that clinical staffers would not be alone in a room with an inmate.

Boylan explained that the division wants to address its $443,996 hole by cutting $720,800 from a contract with the University of California Davis Health Systems for jail psychiatric services. The remaining $276,804 would go toward filling the four medical assistant positions.

The current 46-person psychiatric services staff funded by the UC Davis contract will be cut to 28 employees.

The county’s general fund will not be affected by this plan, according to Boylan’s report.

The city of Sacramento is also following planned mental health cuts at the county. City officials are concerned about a projected $10 million in cuts to the county's Department of Behavioral Health Services. The state's ongoing budget crisis is spurring the state's projected $10 million in cuts to Behavioral Health Services. 

Read Boylan’s report to the Board of Supervisors here. 

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.