School district untold of scam by prisoner

Teresa Hinds

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

It took nearly four months for state prison officials to notify the Clark County School District of an inmate's forgery of a district employee's signature and use of school district computers in a scam.

Southern Desert Correctional Center inmate Donald Stamey, 27, was caught soliciting to start a religious group after a package for a business addressed to Stamey was intercepted at the prison in June, according to disciplinary reports.

"Through this evidence it is clear that inmate Stamey is misusing the CCSD library computer and printer to organize and/or operate a private corporation," the report states.

Prison spokesman Howard Skolnik said "this has not been a common situation, so up to this point there has been no procedure for formal notification" of other agencies involved in prison crimes.

The case was officially closed Aug. 28, when Stamey's scam was exposed and he was sentenced by a board of prison commissioners to 365 days in disciplinary segregation.

A phone call from a SUN reporter inquiring about the case Monday prompted prison officials to reopen the case, Skolnik said. That's the same day the school district learned about it.

"I found out Monday when Howard (Skolnik) called and indicated that there was an investigation going on involving the computer in the library, and that there was an indication that our computer was used to generate some forms," said Don McHenry, school district area superintendent for alternative schools and programs.

"I have several concerns in that it wasn't really brought to my attention until now, but I don't know how much information they had until recently to bring to my attention."

The prison school principal had at one point indicated there were "some problems," at the prison, said McHenry, "but it was pretty nonspecific at that point."

According to McHenry, Stamey apparently forged the principal's name on a letter of authorization, which gave him permission to enter the library building after hours, and used one of about three school district computers and printers in that area to create documents used in the scam.

Those computers are normally used by an inmate library aide, password-secured for that inmate. Others should not have access to those computers, McHenry said.

It is his understanding that Stamey was a former library aide.

Skolnik explained that letters of authorization for a variety of things are provided to inmates by staff, and "they range from everything from approval to get tools to access to a particular part of the prison for some specific purpose at a specific time."

The use of letters of authorization "probably is an area that is being revisited based on this incident," he said.

Another change that probably will come about is the security of school district property.

"(Skolnik) and I are going to go back out there and do an on-site visit and see the inventory as to how they are secured and what their applications are," McHenry said. "We're going to work together on this."

Prison officials did not routinely monitor the school district computers because they assumed the school district was taking that responsibility, Skolnik said.

"In a multiple-agency situation, we're going to have to review policy and procedures on how we work together," he said. "There are too many people assuming the other guy is monitoring the situation."

McHenry expressed confidence the prison and school district will be able to formulate a plan so this type of incident does not happen again.

"We actually have a good working relationship with the Department of Prisons, so I do have confidence that they are looking at the inmate group from a security standpoint."

SUN REPORTER Cathy Scott contributed to this story.