Although the emphasis in this Sacramento Bee story is on the delay in the booking process resulting from a reduction in intake nurses due to budget cuts, the article also notes that the nursing-to-patient ratio in the jail is otherwise below standard for a hospital.
Although the Sheriff's Department runs the Main Jail, medical employees are provided through the county-funded Correctional Health Services Division.
AnnMarie Boylan, chief of that division, said her $40 million budget has been slashed 24 percent this year. She eliminated two intake nurses, she said, because she doesn't have anywhere else to cut.
Upstairs at the jail, she has two nurses staffing the medical unit, which has 10 beds. The special-needs unit also has two nurses for 60 to 80 inmates. That kind of nursing-to-patient ratio typically would not pass muster at a hospital, Boylan said.