No trace of prison babies

By Dana Gentry

Wednesday, May 28, 2008 | 3:31 p.m.

Department of Corrections Director Howard Skolnik is a likable man, not because he sometimes gives me clearance to interview prisoners but because he's the kind of public official who knows when he doesn't have a good answer and admits it. Such was the case today on our program about Nevada's practice, until recently, of turning over babies born to prisoners to anyone the mother requests, with no regard for the surrogate's suitabiilty. The lack of protocol landed a baby born to a Nevada prisoner in the hands of a Wisconsin woman suspected of selling drugs and manufacturing pornography.

Skolnik has defended his department in the past against allegations of lax medical care and recordkeeping, but today admitted he could not explain why prison records document the Nevada inmate was taken to the hospital in 2005 and returned the next day, but make no mention of the baby she delivered nor the child's fate.

So where are the other babies born to Nevada inmates? No one knows. We wanted to talk with Clark County Family Services Director Tom Morton, but the county is less than anxious to jump into this fray, claiming instead that it's a state matter.

Many other states have recognized that keeping mother and child together, at least for a time, facilitates bonding and parenting skills while reducing the burden and cost of social services for both later. Nevada had a plan to do the same, but it got slashed by budget cuts.

Tomorrow - First Lady Dawn Gibbons' attorney says the governor's lust for another woman is the reason Jim Gibbons wants to end his nearly 22-year marriage. Gibbons says it ain't so in a response to the Elko newspaper editorial that fueled the flames. We'll hear from one of the Elko newspaper editors who wrote the editorial and from some legal experts on Dawn Gibbons' efforts to unseal the divorce case.