County Health Official to Run Prison Medical Care

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal judge appointed a California county health official Tuesday to oversee the state’s prison health care system that went into federal receivership last year.

Robert Sillen, who served as Santa Clara County health chief before he was appointed, will earn a $500,000 salary, making him one of the highest paid state employees.

Sillen will be in charge of improving the health care system that serves the state’s 168,000 inmates at a cost of about $1.1 billion annually. The system was put into receivership last July by U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, stripping control from corrections secretary Roderick Hickman and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The decision was made after several weeks of testimony from medical experts who described the dire situation at state prisons that led to as many as 64 preventable deaths in one year.

Sillen was executive director of Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital Systems, a network of county clinics, the public health department, mental health and drug abuse programs, and a medical center that serves residents of San Jose, the Silicon Valley and other communities.

Both Hickman and Gov. Schwarzenegger have pledged support for Sillen.