Report rips treatment of inmates

Friday, March 9, 2001 | 11:31 a.m.

Advocates for inmate rights authored a report that alleges widespread abuse in the Nevada prison system, including brutality, inadequate medical and dental care and shoddy record-keeping.

But prison officials denied most of the allegations in a point-by-point response.

The Spartacus Project report, named for the Roman slave who challenged authority, was distributed Monday to the Las Vegas offices of Gov. Kenny Guinn, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa and Secretary of State Dean Heller. The trio sit as the Nevada Board of Prison Commissioners, which oversees a system that houses more than 10,000 inmates.

The authors include Las Vegas residents Mercedes Maharis, who has taught Buddhist meditation to inmates since 1997, and Donald Hinton, a union organizer whose son is doing time at the Indian Springs prison for a drug-related offense. They hope their report, which was based on visits and correspondence with hundreds of male prisoners, will lead to more humane treatment of inmates.

"Officials in the Department of Prisons are at fault because they have never been accountable for the way they treat prisoners," Maharis said. "I would like to have meetings of families and prisoner rights activists with prison commissioners to discuss every aspect of this report."

But Jackie Crawford, director of the Nevada Department of Prisons, denied the allegation that her department was unaccountable.

"This agency is accountable to the people of the state through the Legislature and the intense supervision the Legislature provides through the budgetary process," Crawford said. "It is accountable to the Board of Prison Commissioners who are directly responsible for the operation of the department. The department is responsible to the courts for the operation of a constitutional organization."

Deputy attorney general Dan Wong, who has seen the report, said Maharis refused to testify at a scheduled Monday morning deposition in Las Vegas to explain her expertise.

"She has been designated as an expert in an inmate case, but I don't agree that she is," Wong said. "The purpose of the deposition was to inquire into her alleged expertise.

"My plan was to form an opinion on her report after I inquired about it. Was it done in a scientific manner? I can't tell that from the report."

Maharis has been listed by Carson City attorney Day Williams as an expert in a civil rights case involving Ely State Prison inmate Robert Rodriguez, who in August 1999 was allegedly shot in the arm and elbow by a guard while face down. Williams said he advised Maharis not to testify at the deposition because Wong refused to pay her a standard $400 expert witness fee.

Maharis said her "expertise" comes in the form of visits and correspondence she has had with inmates, although she has never called herself an expert.

"What does qualify me is that I am an outsider who has not been desensitized," she said. "I never wrote the report from a scientific viewpoint. I only wrote it as a message and as a voice for the prisoners."

Computerized system

In the department's defense, Crawford said the state has a computerized timekeeping system that tracks inmate sentences and has withstood court challenges.

"We structure the sentences based upon the directions that we are given on the judgment of conviction," she said. "If there are complaints about that, then those are resolved by the individual judges."

But Hinton charged that the state, through bungled record-keeping, has held inmates for longer periods of time than permitted under their sentences.

"The reason we believe so many people are there in prison so long is that it is advantageous to the state to get free labor," Hinton said. "We want the state to revamp the system. Brutality runs rampant."

The authors said they were restricted in many cases from naming inmates who made specific complaints because they did not want those prisoners to become victims of retaliation.

Prison guards routinely brutalize and verbally abuse inmates, and also steal and destroy their property, according to the report.

Crawford said such behavior is not routine but conceded occasional abuses, adding that such incidents are investigated.

"A review of specific instances will indicate officers who have been disciplined for their abusive activity and prosecuted for incidents of brutality," she said. "In some cases the department pays for loss of property, which is proven in a small claims court."

The report alleged that "beatings generally occur after prisoners are restrained and cuffed. Consequences for guards are seldom punitive. Administrators and staff are desensitized, misuse power and do not protect prisoners who report abuse."

Frequently moved

But Crawford said inmates who report inappropriate activity are frequently moved for their protection.

It also was alleged that cell searches are not videotaped. Crawford said searches are videotaped when equipment is available but added that her department has been unsuccessful at getting more video machines because "it was not a component in our existing budget."

Maharis and Hinton said medical, dental and mental health care is inadequate, particularly for indigent prisoners.

Prisons department medical director Dr. Ted D'Amico said inmates are charged $4 per medical visit and $2 for prescriptions but that no one is denied health care because of lack of funds. He also said the department employs numerous medical specialists, provides acute care at every prison and offers mental health care in Carson City and Southern Nevada.

"A system is in place to provide for a timely and appropriate response to all medical needs of the inmates in the Nevada Department of Prisons," D'Amico said.

But despite the presence of dental facilities at each prison, the report alleged shortages of dentists and drills for inmates.

"We believe that true physicians and humane, responsible administrative and staff members would notify family members the same day that Nevada Department of Prisons transports seriously ill prisoners to the hospital, instead of five days later."

The report alleged that intake prisoners often have no access to pencils and paper to communicate with attorneys or relatives, a charge Crawford denied. She also denied an allegation that it is difficult for inmates to obtain education, noting that the prisons work with their local school districts. Inmates at the maximum-security Ely State Prison have access to video education programs, Crawford said.

As to a complaint that clothing is sparse, she conceded that the department is "very frugal" in its budget for those items. Prisoners are allowed packages from the outside twice a year to augment their clothing allowance.

Maharis and Hinton also charged that pay for prison work is both meager and often delayed for months.

"Deposits to prisoners' accounts are delayed," the report stated. "The Nevada Department of Prisons confiscates family monetary gifts to prisoners. Deductions from prisoners' accounts go unaccounted for, and can take months of inquiry to resolve."

Crawford said standardization of inmate payroll is a "work-in-progress," with delays in payment caused by payroll documents that are calculated incorrectly or are not properly authorized. It takes an average of nine days from receipt to post money in inmates' accounts, she said. Inmates have up to 180 days to contest entries in their accounts, but Crawford said it could take months to resolve disputes if documentation from outside agencies is required.

Cash is contraband

"Cash found on an inmate is considered contraband and is confiscated," Crawford said. "Inmates are allowed to receive holiday gift monies from mid-November to mid-January each year."

The state is required to provide funding for prison law libraries but the money comes instead from collect calls inmates make to their families, the report alleged.

"Telephone rates for collect calls and prices in the canteens are exorbitant," the report stated. "Foreign nationals cannot call family outside the United States. Sound quality varies from prison to prison and calls are cut off at random."

The prisons department has no control over out-of-state rates for telephone service but went with MCI as the lowest bidder, Crawford said. She also argued that the prisons' $1 in-state collect call surcharge is considerably lower than the $2.25 surcharge placed on users of public pay telephones.

But she conceded that the inmate long-distance telephone system does not allow for international calls. Department telephones can be used to make international calls in emergencies.

"MCI was tasked and completed steps to limit the number of voice overlays, lower the decibel level and improve voice quality," Crawford said.

The report alleged that inmate parole hearing dates and releases from prison are often delayed because state caseworkers are slow at transferring paperwork to parole and probation officials. Paperwork is frequently lost and records related to the time inmates have spent behind bars are often inaccurate, Maharis and Hinton said.

"Nevada Parole and Probation staff cannot or will not perform in a timely manner, also hindering prisoners' release," the report stated. "The Parole Board uses guidelines that increase the length of months required to meet parole criteria and release."

Operating in excess

But Crawford said her department has "no interest in unnecessarily increasing the size of our population by delaying hearings, as we are operating in excess of our designed capacity at every institution within the department." She said lost paperwork is an issue that must be taken up with the state Parole Board or Division of Parole and Probation.

Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said the Spartacus report confirms much of what his office already knew. The ACLU has successfully litigated cases against the state prison system for excessive force, inadequate medical care and censorship.

"Prison and jail conditions are as bad here as they are anywhere," Peck said. "We believe some of these conditions warrant immediate action on the part of the state. But we have an attorney general's office that seems to be thoroughly disinterested in doing anything about these problems."

Maharis and Hinton, who are seeking an outside audit of the prison system budget, aired some of their complaints at a December meeting of the prison commissioners. But they said they came away convinced that the commissioners knew little about what was going on in the prison system.

"Gov. Guinn promised to read every word of our report," Hinton said. "I expect him to be a man of his word. I really believe that if Guinn knew what was going on, there would be change."

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