State senator cuts provision to end nurse-guard jobs.
A state senator's quest to rid California's prisons of nurses trained as guards has stalled under pressure from the powerful union that represents the 1,000 men and women who work in the dual role. Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, is carrying a bill that was originally drafted to eliminate medical technical assistants, or MTAs, who often are the first line of health care for the more than 160,000 inmates in the state's prisons. Most MTAs are licensed vocational nurses or registered nurses who receive basic training as prison guards. MTAs and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association that represents them said eliminating the position would only compromise health care in prisons, where doctors and nurses are already in short supply. But before SB 396 arrived in a Senate committee for its first round of votes, Kuehl had agreed to scrap the main provision, which called for getting rid of MTAs.