Nevada legislators question prison officials

Nevada lawmakers questioned the state's prison administrators Wednesday about safety and employment complaints from prison guards.

During a Department of Corrections presentation to the Assembly Judiciary Committee, Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, expressed concern over the guards' complaints and administration leadership.

"I'm gravely concerned about the morale of the correctional officers and how they're being treated," Buckley said.

"I think our guards, our correctional officers, deserve, even when there's no money, to be treated well. And I just want to make sure that that's happening," Buckley said later.

Jackie Crawford, corrections director, said the problems stem from the state's fiscal woes and budget cuts that led to a reduction in overtime for the guards.

"I knew when we started cutting back on the overtime, that was going to cause a ripple effect that no one was going to be happy with," Crawford said. She said her first priority had to be jobs, not overtime pay.

Also discussed was prison safety, an issue that has drawn protests from guards who say security at some of the state's prisons is lax.

Guards staged protests last month to bring attention to what they consider staffing shortages at High Desert and Southern Desert prisons, both near Las Vegas.

Assemblyman Rod Sherer, R-Pahrump, said he had received a number of calls from constituents about security at the facilities, specifically guards on the towers, which is one of the issues prison guards protested.

Glen Whorton, an assistant director for the department, said all towers at High Desert State Prison aren't manned, but security in the prison yard is actually stronger than when the new department administration came into power.

Whorton also said some of the problems are because of complexities arising from shifting departmental focus from incarceration to rehabilitation.

"We are working very hard to do the best we can given the resources we have. And frankly we do have a safe department with institutions that are under control today," Whorton said.

Scott MacKenzie, executive director of the State of Nevada Employees Association, said guards at High Desert do not feel any safer, or think that security is any better.

"I've had nothing but complaints for the last year about how dangerous it is," MacKenzie said.

Gov. Kenny Guinn's budget proposal calls for eliminating 77 guards for the upcoming two fiscal years, which begin in July. Crawford also said the department has 14 guards called up to active military duty and another 90 guards are eligible for military service.

The Department of Corrections maintains a staffing ratio of 6.6 guards per inmate, the highest ratio in the nation. The national average is 4.23 uniformed staff per inmate.

"The safety issue's a real concern. Nothing's changed. We're still going down the road of making inmates happy as opposed to working on safety and security," MacKenzie said.

SNEA, which represents about 900 state prison workers, has filed suit in U.S. District Court against the Department of Corrections and the attorney general's office, claiming guards had been suspended for complaining about security and safety.

The suit also claims union members were denied their rights to free association, to advocate for benefits and to make comments on public concern.

"She operates by misinformation, intimidation. She puts on this big smile in the public, in the face of the legislators, but when it comes to her staff, she's coming from a position of intimidation," MacKenzie said.

The department and the Attorney General's Office have denied any violation. Crawford wouldn't comment on the suit to the committee Wednesday.