Dismissal is latest flap at prison

David Kihara

Friday, April 7, 2006 | 7:11 a.m.

State prison officials fired a vocational program director Thursday, a day after she led an assemblyman on a tour of the women's prison in North Las Vegas to view what she and others are calling horrible conditions.

Mary Hester, who filed a complaint with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission last month claiming harassment, had taken Assemblyman Harvey Munford on a tour of the prison Wednesday. She said she was fired without being told why.

"I don't think it's fair," said Hester, who has worked at the prison since last May and was still under her 12-month probation period. "I asked for justification, and they gave me no justification."

The firing is the latest issue at the women's prison. In the past few months, five employees have filed complaints against the state prison system with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the Nevada Equal Rights Commission.

They are accusing the prison of racial discrimination and harassment, and say officials retaliated against them when they raised concerns about basic medical care for inmates inside the prison.

Munford, D-Las Vegas, made a surprise visit to the prison Wednesday, and Hester showed him around. On Thursday morning, she received a call from a prison official in Carson City telling her to report to a human resources office across town.

Munford went with her to what turned out to be a brief meeting - she was given a letter signed by Dorothy Nash Holmes, deputy director of the correctional programs division, telling her she was "rejected from probation" and had no right to appeal.

Several staff members who worked with Hester said she had an unblemished record.

Munford said the timing of Hester's firing was odd.

"There might have been a connection because she was one of the people who directed me to the women who had issues in the prison," Munford said. "I don't know if that was retaliation, but it sounds sort of suspicious to me."

During his tour, Munford met with several female inmates who complained that the prison officials wouldn't supply them with basic medications, among other issues.

Munford said he has received several phone calls and letters from inmates complaining about conditions at the prison, and he said he's still looking into the issue.

Howard Skolnik, deputy director of the Department of Corrections, said he could not comment on personnel matters.

Several other officials, including Nash Holmes, also declined to comment.

In her complaint to the Nevada Equal Rights Commission, Hester alleged that other prison staff and administrators interfered with the vocational classes she taught at the prison and "undermined her ability to do her job," according to the complaint.

In separate complaints, other women paint a picture of a jail with poor oversight and bad management, fraught with inmate medical problems and managers who try to get revenge against employees who speak out.

Dorothy Davis-Rimmey, a clinical social worker at the prison, accused administrators at Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Center of passing her over for a promotion in February because she is black. Davis-Rimmey filed a complaint with the EEOC in early March.

"I've been mistreated here. I started working at the Department of Corrections in 2001 and it's been hell," she said.

Another employee, who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation, complained of harassment after reporting a shortage of hygiene products and medications for the inmates. The employee filed a complaint with the EEOC in late February.

"I was absolutely perplexed by the lack of response and apathy here toward the inmates," said the employee, who has worked at the prison for about two years. "The NDOC's mode of operation is, they would rather shoot the messenger than solve the problem."

The women's prison has come under fire in the past because it allegedly failed to provide necessary medications to inmates.

Prison officials previously said that centralizing the prison pharmacy led to delays in delivering medicine.

A prison official said Thursday that the medical problems have been taken care of but wouldn't comment further.

The warden at Southern Nevada Women's Correctional did not return calls seeking comment.

Hester said she was proud to have led Munford on a tour of the prison.

"People have a right to know what's going on and how their public funds are being used," Hester said. "The mistreatment of inmates and the mistreatment of staff ... it's a cesspool at the women's prison."