Inmates’ misconduct rampant in prisons

Cathy Scott

Saturday, Feb. 8, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Warden Sherman Hatcher was secretly monitoring a visiting room at the Southern Desert Correctional Center when he and a corrections officer saw a woman and an inmate having sex, according to a disciplinary report.

In another case at the prison near Indian Springs, an officer searching an inmate's cell found "a see-through pen, used as a pipe, that smelled of burnt marijuana and showed residue inside," a report said.

These are just two of many examples of inmates breaking rules and the law in Nevada prisons, prison officers say.

Copies of disciplinary reports from the Southern Desert Correctional Center, as well as information about activities at other Nevada prisons, show widespread violations.

They include illegal narcotics smuggled to inmates by visitors, inmates getting drunk on "white lightning," or "pruno," home brewed in their cells and inmates crafting illegal hand-made shanks for use as weapons.

The cases all occurred late last year and as recently as last month. They come on the heels of Gov. Bob Miller's proposal to spend $90 million for a new 1,500-bed prison near Indian Springs.

Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, has expressed concerns about building large facilities while problems continue to occur inside some of the existing prisons. The state owns enough land in the Indian Springs area to house up to 10,000 prisoners.

Arberry has suggested that smaller prisons might be more manageable.

"I would hate to ever have a prison break ... or a run on the prison and the prisoners take control of the prison," Arberry said when the bill was introduced.

Legislators are also considering a bill that would punish all inmates in a housing unit where drugs are found, even if just one inmate is involved.

Meanwhile, a rash of inmate violations has plagued the Southern Desert Correctional Center. Each case was handled administratively; none was referred to the attorney general's office for criminal prosecution.

* On Aug. 15, Hatcher caught inmate Anthony McCullough "engaged in sex" with a woman in the visiting area at SDCC.

The visit was cut short and the woman was escorted out.

"Investigator Wayne Dyer along with Warden Hatcher observed the inmate and his visitor, Beatrice Amos, engaged in sexually stimulating activities, including intercourse," a supervisor wrote.

It was learned that the visitor was on another inmate's visiting list -- her father's -- and that McCullough was her husband.

The inmate's discipline included "90 days loss of visits with Beatrice Amos."

That kind of sexual behavior at the prison is not unusual, according to a prison source. "It happens all the time," said one officer, who spoke only on condition of anonymity.

* On Sept. 14, a balloon containing marijuana was found in a body cavity of inmate Michael Blackman.

A senior corrections officer assigned to the visiting area witnessed a 10-minute visit between inmate Michael Blackman and his daughter.

While doing a routine strip search of the inmate, the officer "noticed a white balloon protruding from his anus," a penal disciplinary report said.

When the inmate refused to give the officer the balloon, the officer put him in handcuffs and notified a supervisor.

"Inmate Blackman was taken to the dry cell in the infirmary where he did ultimately produce a balloon of marijuana," an officer wrote.

* On Dec. 8, an SDCC officer was searching the property of inmate Edward Striley after Striley was isolated for fighting. In the left pocket of a pair of jeans was a syringe wrapped in plastic. After a hearing, the inmate was placed in the "hole" for 90 days.

* On Jan. 16, two officers doing a random search of inmate Darrell Jackson's cell found a metal shank, about 8-10 inches long.

"It fell on the ground when I pulled a piece of cardboard from the shelf of the wall unit in his cell," the report stated.

The outcome of an investigation and hearing was pending.

* On Jan. 17, corrections officers on the swing shift did a random cell search, including inmate Rodger West's cell. The officers found a small bag of dough "which smelled heavily of yeast" (used for fermenting pruno), according to the disciplinary report.

The bag of dough was found on the outside of a window ledge "in the cold night air as not to let it rise until needed," an officer said.

Also during the search, officers found an empty milk bladder hidden in the corner under some paper bags. "Milk bladders are also used in the making of pruno," the report said.

* On Jan. 18, acting on a tip, an officer searched inmate Aaron VanDaele's cell. The officer found "a see-through pen, used as a pipe, that smelled of burnt marijuana and showed residue inside," a report said.

The guard also found a cloth bag with a rock inside that could be used as a "blackjack" type weapon, the officer's report said.

The officer also found that a cell light had been tampered with, leaving two wires exposed. Along with the pen, the officer found a glass night light with the end broken into a jagged edge, "made into a shank," or home-made knife.

The inmate was found guilty at a Feb. 1 hearing and received a verbal reprimand.

* On Nov. 27, while inmate Robert Spillage was rolling up the sleeves of his state-issued jacket, an officer discovered a tobacco can. Inside were two screwdrivers, two bottles of ink and a tattoo gun. The inmate claimed the jacket wasn't his. The charges were dismissed because of lack of evidence, according to the report.

* At the Ely State Prison, Laverne Schmitz swallowed a balloon of illegal narcotics, which burst. On Oct. 21, Schmitz was flown by Flight for Life helicopter to University Medical Center after prison guards noticed Schmitz ill inside his cell.

Schmitz, 37, was pronounced dead at 9:10 a.m. Oct. 28 at University Medical Center, a week after he arrived. According to the coroner's office, the immediate cause was "pneumonia caused by acute drug toxicity."

Just how the inmate was able to get the narcotics inside the prison walls was not known. After a reporter called about the inmate's death, an investigation was launched into how Schmitz got the drugs into his cell.

"Regarding inmate Schmitz and the drugs he had in his possession, that incident is going to be under investigation by the departmental investigators to determine the source of the drugs and the entire nature of that incident," said Glen Whorton, a spokesman for the state Department of Prisons.

* In October, SDCC inmate Donald Stamey, 27, was sent to the disciplinary segregation unit for one year after a prison committee found him guilty of running an illegal business inside the prison using a Clark County School District computer and forging a district employee's signature.

Stamey, in a letter to the SUN, denied the charges, saying he had permission to use the library. Stamey was caught after a package for a business addressed to him was received at the prison.

Prison officers confiscated a forged document and forged medical ID cards, prison spokesman Howark Skolnik said.

A disciplinary report states that "material from the Universal Life Church was also confiscated because this title was also being used to further this business venture."

"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. He was soliciting to start a religious group."

Regarding drugs in prison, department spokesman Howard Skolnik said, "We can't strip search visitors coming in here. We have some serious limitations."

Officers can, however, strip search the inmates after they have contact with visitors.

One guard said: "The cases are not referred to the attorney general's office. If I had that much drugs on me in my car, I'd go to prison. For the same amount of drugs, you'd go to prison for 20 years. Here, you go to the hole for 90 to 120 days."

As for pruno, it's like alcohol, an officer said. Prisoners take yeast out of the kitchen and "cook" it with potatoes or tomatoes.

"We call them brewmeisters," an officer said. "They get really drunk on it."

Inmate Jasara Whitmore claims he has been treated unfairly while prisoners caught with drugs, white lightning and make-shift weapons have been treated with leniency. Whitmore is currently housed in the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City.

A month after he turned 16, in October 1993, Whitmore, now 19, was involved in a car accident in which 16-year-old Brad Nixon died. Whitmore was charged with reckless driving. While a public defender protested that Whitmore did not have a violent criminal history, a Juvenile Court judge certified Whitmore as an adult and he was tried and convicted in District Court. At age 16, he was sent to prison, housed with adults.

Whitmore said in a telephone interview that because he's half-white and half-black, some guards have harassed him. Prison officials, when asked about the case, said they couldn't comment on individual inmates because of privacy laws.

Since his incarceration, Whitmore has been been transferred from prison to prison -- first at the Indian Springs Conservation Camp, then he was transferred to the Pioche Conservation Camp, then to the Northern Nevada Correctional Center, on to the Lovelock Correctional Center, then to the Carlin Conservation Camp, and, finally, he was transferred back to the Northern Nevada Correctional Center.

Corrections officers refer to such transfers as doing "the circuit."

After an officer charged that Whitmore threatened him at the Pioche Conservation Camp, the then-16-year-old was transferred to Northern Nevada, away from his family members, who live in Las Vegas.

Two years later, the same guard who wrote him up has written him up again, three weeks before Whitmore's parole hearing.

"The same guard he says harassed him and got in trouble with in Pioche has charged him again with threatening him," said Pam Whitmore, Jasara's mother. "Now he's afraid that because of this, he won't get out on parole."

Jasara claims the incident never happened. While Whitmore waits for a hearing about the matter, "he's back in the hole," in solitary confinement, Pam Whitmore said.

Department of Prisons spokesman Glen Whorton described Whitmore as "a chronic discipline problem." Whorton noted that the incident has not yet been heard.

"It hasn't been adjudicated," he said. "The people who write up prisoners are not on the Parole Board. Even if it is adjudicated, the Parole Board may not know about it."

Whorton said when an inmate engages in misconduct, "then he should be written up," even though two prison guards told the SUN that inmates often threaten officers and no charges are ever filed.

"We have inmates threaten us all the time," the corrections officer said. "It washes off us like water off a duck's back. Ninety-nine percent of the time, we ignore it."

Whitmore is scheduled for a parole hearing in three weeks. If paroled, he could be released in June, according to the prison.

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