Panel OKs bill to penalize cons for attacking guards

Jennifer Coleman

Tuesday, Feb. 16, 1999 | 9:04 a.m.

CARSON CITY, Nev. - The Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously Monday to add another two to 10 years to terms of convicts who throw feces or urine at Nevada prison staffers or other inmates.

Walter Tarantino, a lawyer for the Nevada Corrections Association, said such attacks are increasing, exposing more prison employees to sometimes deadly communicable diseases.

"This is the assault of the future in the prison system," said Tarantino, adding that guards fear they'll contract a disease or bring it home to their families.

Ely State Prison guard Linda Avilla told the Judiciary Committee she was the victim of such an attack last year - hit in the face with excrement when she slid a towel under a cell door.

The prisoner, who has AIDS, was never punished for his attack.

"This prisoner has a history of making shanks, prison-made weapons, but he doesn't have to anymore. He's his own weapon now," she said.

Avilla said she's had several blood tests since her attack and hasn't tested positive for HIV or hepatitis. She said she will continue to have AIDS tests for the next 10 years.

"I'm 54 years old," she said tearfully. "It's not a good retirement."

Ed Flagg, president of the Nevada Corrections Association, said guards have to deal with such attacks every day.

"This happens when we walk by the cell, or walk across the yard," he said. "You'd have to put us in armored suit, airtight, to protect us."

SB149 would require that prison administrators investigate each incident and forward the evidence to the attorney general. Tarantino said that would ensure such attacks don't go unpunished.

Director of Prisons Bob Bayer wasn't at the hearing, but said later his department did refer the Avilla case to the attorney general's office in June or July 1998 and that office refused to prosecute.

"Whenever there's a case like this, we forward it to the AG," he said. "In theory, I have no problem with referring these cases to the attorney general's office. We're not arguing with NCA."

Bayer also said he has not yet analyzed the fiscal impact caused by SB149 if convicts had their sentences lengthened because of such attacks.

The prisons chief is proposing a major expansion of one southern Nevada prison, but figures another prison could be leased out to other states with overcrowded prisons.