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| Furlough exemptions granted |
| By lvrj.com |
| Published: 11/11/2009 |
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CARSON CITY -- To better ensure public safety, the state Board of Examiners voted unanimously Tuesday to exempt Department of Corrections employees from the one-day-a-month furloughs mandated for other state employees. The board, chaired by Gov. Jim Gibbons, decided to use almost all remaining money in a $4 million furlough exemption fund to free correctional employees from a requirement to take an unpaid day off each month through June 30. Board members also authorized state Corrections Director Howard Skolnik to charge about $800,000 in rent for the use of canteens and gyms in state prisons over the next year and a half to help pay for the furlough exemption in the 2010-11 fiscal year. The money would come out of canteen profits. Prisoners themselves would not pay these costs. In addition, Skolnik can use $590,000 in federal funds to pay for the furlough exemptions. The funds are given to the state to cover costs of housing prisoners who are in the country illegally. He also will try to rent out the now-closed Southern Nevada Correctional Center in Jean to raise $2.5 million. If he can secure the rental funds, then Correctional Department employees will not be required to take furlough days in the fiscal year that begins July 1. Furloughing correctional employees would not be safe for the prisons or the public, Skolnik said after the meeting. "The staff recognizes if we take furloughs we increase the likelihood of their injury or death," he said. "We are understaffed to start with by 15 percent." Furloughing employees would mean that at any one time prisons would have 20 percent fewer employees than full staffing, he added. Read More. |
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