SACRAMENTO – With California struggling to pay its bills and facing another deficit, the receiver in charge of the state's inmate medical care will argue Monday for the right to take $8 billion from the state treasury.

The federal court hearing in San Francisco is one of two legal challenges weighing heavily on the California corrections department. In the other, a panel of three federal judges must decide whether to cap the state's inmate population to solve overcrowding.

Addressing both will be expensive. In addition to the billions for medical beds, the state has approved a $7.4 billion construction plan to add more space and relieve crowded prison conditions, although the program has been delayed amid partisan bickering in Sacramento.

The state has been trying to improve its delivery of medical services to inmates since federal courts found the system negligent and directly responsible for inmate deaths.

The court-appointed medical receiver, J. Clark Kelso, says the state has refused to provide him with any portion of the $8 billion he wants, with $2.1 billion of the total this year.

He has asked that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Controller John Chiang be held in contempt of court.

“The state's leaders have failed to act,” Kelso said.

He acknowledged that his request comes at a time when California is strapped for cash.

“There's no escaping: We're asking for a large sum of money,” he said.

If U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson agrees with Kelso, it will slash a hole in the state budget Schwarzenegger signed Sept. 23.

“This is an extraordinary invasion of the sovereignty of California,” said Attorney General Jerry Brown, who as the state's top lawyer is defending the Schwarzenegger administration. “I don't know that it's ever happened in the history of the country.”

Kelso said he can no longer wait for state lawmakers to act if he is to oversee construction of seven prison medical and mental health facilities, enough to care for 10,000 inmates. He is asking Henderson to fine the state at least $2 million a day for each day it withholds the money.

The administration's primary argument is that federal law prohibits judges from ordering states to build new prisons, including Kelso's secure medical facilities.

Kelso's response is that the U.S. Constitution trumps federal law. Judges already have ruled that poor prison conditions violate California inmates' constitutional rights.

Brown, the attorney general, also contends that Kelso wants to spend far too much on inmate health care. He says the state has not seen a detailed that shows how Kelso arrived at the $8 billion figure.

The entire budget for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is about $10 billion a year.

“Basically, if you want top-drawer care, you have to go to prison,” Brown said. “I think it's over the top, far beyond what the average citizen has.”

Spending $2 billion to improve antiquated existing prison health care centers and another $6 billion to add new ones is the best and quickest way to improve care to a constitutionally acceptable level, said Kelso, a college law professor who was the state's chief information officer under Schwarzenegger and former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. He promised to use competitive bidding and financial incentives to keep costs as low as possible.

Inmate advocacy groups side with Kelso, saying state lawmakers have failed to heed the direction of the courts.

“The state has once again proven to the court that it has no ability to solve the serious problems that exist in the state prisons,” said Michael Bien, one of the attorneys representing prison inmates. “They're basically saying to the court, 'We're not capable of doing this on our own.'”