Editorial: Denying a daughter’s dying wish

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 1998 | 11:25 a.m.

In an inhumane world, it's often difficult to be humane.

Such was the case last week when prison officials would not let an inmate visit his dying 17-year-old daughter.

As the Sun's Stacy Willis reported Friday, Nevada Department of Prisons officials said administrative policy prevented inmates on "close custody" status from making guard-accompanied trips for family emergencies.

Wayne Porretti is serving a 10-year sentence at the Jean Conservation Camp for robbery and is eligible for parole in 1999. He was notified last week that his daughter, Samantha, was at Sunrise Hospital.

Doctors said she would likely die from her pneumonia-like symptoms. She wanted to see her father one last time. He wanted to see his daughter one last time. Despite calls from family, friends and even an investigator in the Clark County district attorney's office, prison officials refused to let Porretti make the trip to Sunrise.

Porretti then tried to call his daughter at the hospital, but it was too late. She had just died. Porretti also was not allowed to attend his daughter's funeral Saturday.

No one is suggesting Porretti is a saint. He had robbed a Winchell's Donut House and a Kentucky Fried Chicken, among other businesses. He is being punished for those crimes.

And it's true that prison is not a hotel. Inmates can't come and go as they please. But there should be some exceptions made for extreme cases like this.

Granting such wishes should be considered on a case-by-case basis. By some accounts, Porretti was not a dangerous criminal. There was no hope of recovery for his daughter.

Ironically Porretti is in "close custody," which is more restrictive and segregated than medium security, because he was a state's witness against two inmates in the 1991 shooting and burning death of a Las Vegas woman.

Samantha wanted to see her father again. Porretti said he wanted to apologize to her and tell Samantha how much he loved her.

The emphasis should have been placed on her dying wish. It would have been the humane thing to do.

AT ISSUE: The Nevada Department of Prisons, citing its administrative policy, refused to let an inmate visit his daughter last week before she died. Did prison officials do the right thing?

CONTRAST: Despite the need for clear-cut rules in running a prison, in rare circumstances there are compelling reasons to make exceptions.