San Diego County Board of Supervisors Approves Reduction in Mental Health Services for Inmates, Probationers
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to discontinue on Dec. 31 the provision of mental health services for probationers and jail inmates at their current level under the San Diego Connections Program and instead provide "scaled-down" services because of budgetary issues, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The Connections program, which the county sheriff and probation departments have run since December 1999, assigned five mental health clinicians to the county's seven main jails and included 13 probation officers who visited 130 probationers once a week. The revised program will make one psychiatrist available at five of the jails and provide six probation officers to visit probationers at least once every other week. Probation Department spokesperson Derryl Acosta said that the program will continue even though its original $5 million Board of Corrections grant has been exhausted. Acosta said that the county will seek alternative funding for the program (Arner, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12/3).
This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.