Legislative auditors criticize prison medical expenditures

Friday, Sept. 4, 1998 | 9:55 a.m.

Auditors told a legislative subcommittee that the prisons system didn't even follow its own rule that the medical director give his consent before inmates get treatment outside the prison. The prisons system has had five different medical directors in the past 10 years.

New medical director Theodore D'Amico didn't dispute the findings Thursday, and vowed to stop the hemorrhaging.

"It is starting to work already," said D'Amico about changes he has implemented.

Nevada prison inmates average $3,387 a year in medical costs, up from $1,525 in 1988. Their medical costs are the eighth highest among prison systems around the nation.

Auditors said the state would have saved $8.5 million last year if inmate costs were at the national average. Nevada taxpayers pay $30.5 million a year on prison medical costs. Of the total, $5 million is for special care outside the prisons.

"By failing to comply with its own financial controls and cost containment practices, the Department of Prisons cannot ensure that all expenditures from outside medical care are necessary and appropriate," the auditors stated.

Assembly Speaker Joe Dini, D-Yerington, said some of the prison costs were the result of federal court orders that the prison system beef up its mental health services.

"The staff was under the gun from the courts," he said. "For a good number of years, they were after our necks. It wasn't that the prisons director wanted to spend money."