Committee rejects prison-food funding

Thursday, April 24, 2003 | 9:13 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Assembly Ways and Means Committee Wednesday didn't buy the argument of prison officials that they need an inflationary increase in the food budget as a way to keep peace among the inmates.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, told officials of the Department of Corrections, who were asking for about $750,000 over the next two years to cover inflation in food prices, that this "is the worst possible year to ask for inflation," referring to the shortfall in tax revenue.

The committee agreed with Perkins and said the prisons could make savings in other areas of the budget to cover the increase in food costs. The increase was proposed in Gov. Kenny Guinn's budget.

The action puts the Assembly on a collision course with the Senate Finance Committee, which earlier accepted the arguments of corrections officials that food is a key element in the security of the prison. It agreed to the inflation increase over the next two years to the $17.2 million food budget.

Darrel Rexwinkel, assistant director of support services for the state Department of Corrections, told the Assembly committee that food is a "major security issue. The inmates hold food near and dear."

Rexwinkel said the inflationary increase sought would be small compared to what might happen if the inmates acted to destroy property in the prison over dissatisfaction with the food.

Perkins, a deputy Henderson police chief, said he understood how food could be a security issue, but he said that armed officers and fences are also security issues. He called food a "behavior modification issue."

Perkins, like Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, sharply criticized Glen Whorton, the department's assistant director of operations, for his letter to the committees.

Whorton suggested that the fiscal staff of the Legislature was taking "retaliatory action" against the prison by cutting out the inflation.

Perkins said he was disturbed by the tone of a letter that he said made misrepresentations. He said the fiscal staff works at the direction of the legislators.

Whorton was not present at the Wednesday meeting, but Rexwinkel said Whorton "does extend his apologies for the letter."

Rexwinkel said Whorton was concerned for the safety of correction officers and what could happen if the inmates start a disturbance because of the food issue.

Rexwinkel told the Assembly committee the prison serves nutritious but not extravagant meals to the inmates at a cost of $2.29 a day. That's lower than the $4.41 average in the 11 Western states outside Hawaii and Wyoming. And it's below the $5.25 per day average for the state Division of Child and Family Services.

He said the meals average 2,900 calories a day and said the prisons serve 11 million meals a year.