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| Nevada Legislators Question Prison Officials |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/05/2003 |
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Nevada lawmakers questioned the state's prison administrators February 5 about safety and employment complaints from prison officers. During a Department of Corrections presentation to the Assembly Judiciary Committee, Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, expressed concern over the officers' 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 officers, 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 officers. '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 officers who say security at some of the state's prisons is lax. Officers 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 officers on the towers, which is one of the issues prison officers 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 that some of the problems are due to 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 officers 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 officers for the upcoming two fiscal years, which begin in July. Crawford also said the department currently has 14 officers called up to active military duty, and another 90 officers are eligible for military service. The Department of Corrections maintains a staffing ratio of 6.6 officers per inmate, the highest ratio in the nation. The national average is 4.23 uniformed staff per inmate. |
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