Editorial: Scrimping on a prison

Friday, May 13, 2005 | 9:08 a.m.

This week a budget subcommittee in the Nevada Legislature reached an impasse on whether to add 17 more guards to High Desert State Prison near Indian Springs, located 46 miles from Las Vegas. The subcommittee, made up of Senate Finance Committee members and Assembly Ways and Means Committee members, deadlocked despite testimony from prison officials that more guards were necessary to maintain control at the prison. The additional staffing would cost $1.5 million over the next two years. It is a relatively modest sum, in our view, to provide better security for prison guards, who have one of the toughest jobs imaginable.

As the Sun's Cy Ryan reported Wednesday, prison officials point to two key reasons why additional guards are needed at High Desert State Prison. First, the prison has some of the most violent inmates in Nevada -- and its numbers have kept going up, contributing to an increasing number of assaults by inmates against fellow prisoners and against guards. Second, because the prison stretches out across a large swath of land -- it covers 21 acres and it is two miles around its perimeter -- its security problem is exacerbated. Fritz Schlottman, an administrator in the Corrections Department, said that the staffing shortage means that if a guard is attacked, "we can't get people across the yard" fast enough to help him.

Fistfights are common and there even have been instances of inmates throwing feces at guards. Corrections Department Director Jackie Crawford said there have been three major incidents within the last year alone. An uprising between gangs resulted in an inmate being stabbed to death. In another assault, an inmate was stabbed six times while he was in the prison yard. In yet another incident, an inmate was beaten so badly by other prisoners that he required medical treatment costing $500,000 -- a tab picked up by taxpayers. Crawford added that 250 Mexican gang members had to be sent to a prison in Northern Nevada in an effort to try to tamp down the level of violence. Research by the Sun revealed that last year there were at least two serious assaults on guards. Ed Flagg, president of the Nevada Corrections Association, summed it up well: "It's a hell hole at High Desert."

Despite the situation at the prison, the extra guards were rejected by the joint budget subcommittee. Although the Assembly members of the joint budget committee voted 3-2 in favor of more guards, the Senate members voted 2-1 against the proposal. And since it requires a majority from both houses to get a favorable recommendation, the funding for the guards is in jeopardy. One of those senators who voted against more guards, Republican Dean Rhoads of Tuscarora, said he was afraid it would set a precedent -- that other prison officials could come back and ask for more officers. But, as Corrections Department officials noted, they aren't going to ask for additional guards elsewhere.

The Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee should override the subcommittee's decision and provide the full funding requested by the Corrections Department. The state is awash in surplus money this year, making it that much more inconceivable that the Legislature would reject any effort to provide better security and, in effect, offer better protection for prison guards.