‘Tis the season to escape?

Tuesday, Dec. 23, 1997 | 10:10 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Escapes from the new state women's prison in North Las Vegas are proving costly, while the escape of a one-legged inmate from the Nevada State Prison has proven embarrassing.

Corrections Corp. of America, which built and operates the $28 million Southern Nevada Women's Correction Facility at 4370 Smiley Road near Lamb Boulevard, is going to be penalized $50,000 for allowing the escape of two inmates recently.

State Prison Director Bob Bayer said Monday there will be "liquidated damages" of $25,000 for each escape imposed against the private company.

"We designed our contract (with Corrections Corp.) as tight as we could," Bayer said. He recently read that another state is considering imposing a $10,000 penalty for an escape.

"Wait until the other states find out what we're doing," he said.

The state pays the private company an average $40 per day per inmate and also reimburses Corrections Crop. $192,411 a month for the cost of building the prison.

Sheila Green walked away on Oct. 29 and surrendered the following day. Shyanne Nystedt escaped on Oct. 31 and was captured the same day.

Another woman, Teresa Camplese, escaped Dec. 5 and was arrested Dec. 9 by Metro Police on a prostitution charge plus the escape warrant. Bayer said the first two were on supervised work crews. But an inmate who is a trustee in the community who walks away is not considered an escapee for the purposes of imposing the penalty.

Warden Loy Hayes, head of the 500-bed women's prison, could not reached for comment.

Meanwhile, Bayer said he has just received the investigative report on the one-legged inmate who climbed three chain-link fences at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City and escaped during the Thanksgiving weekend.

Bayer intends to review it during the holidays to see if security "needs to be tightened" or if "staff made errors." If they did, he said discipline would be imposed. At least one prison corrections officer was suspended pending an investigation.

Steve Albrecht, serving a 10-year term for burglary from Clark County, walked out a prison door, scaled three fences, then climbed another fence at the adjacent Carson City sewage treatment plan on Nov. 29.

He hot-wired a maintenance vehicle and crashed through a gate. Albrecht, with an artificial limb, was captured several hours later in Hawthorne, about 140 miles away.

It was the first escape from the prison since 1990.

Bayer called the escape an "embarrassment" but noted it doesn't happen too often and no one was harmed. "When there is a long period of time, people get complacent. You've got to be 100 percent ready all the time."

Guards apparently left their post in the control room to join a shakedown of inmates and left the door open. Albrecht walked free.

How he was able to scale three fences without detection in a prison guard tower is still a mystery. The tower was staffed at the time of the escape. But the corrections officer has to do a "180 degree head turn" to survey all the area, Bayer said. In addition, this officer has other duties, such as allowing vehicles in and out of the prison.

The officer may have been distracted for two or three minutes in handling his other functions when Albrecht made it over the fences, he said.

Bayer still maintains a sense of humor. He notes there is a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that prisons must conform to the American Disabilities Act to accommodate the handicapped. "This guy (Albrecht) doesn't need a ramp to get around," he quipped.

SUN REPORTER Cathy Scott contributed to this story.