LOOKING IN ON: CARSON CITY

Monday, Oct. 2, 2006 | 7:35 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Understaffing in the 12,000-inmate state prison system has resulted in higher risks for prisoners, the guards and the general public, a new state report concludes.

A report by the state Division of Internal Audits said "posts" at the state's seven largest prisons were fully staffed only 83 percent of the time. The potential problems arising from that were typified by one incident in which a prisoner escaped in a vehicle through a gate staffed by one officer when two guards were supposed to be on duty. During his three months at large, the inmate committed robbery, auto theft and kidnapping.

To properly staff the prisons to ensure better safety will require an estimated $14 million a year to hire 231 correctional officers, the report said.

Gov. Kenny Guinn said the $14 million will have to be added to the $50 million budgeted over two years for staff and utilities at new or expanded prisons .

The report said Nevada's ratio of prison staff is 1.6 officers per post, compared to other states' 1.75 to 2 per post ratio. Nevada prison officials have recommended a ratio of 1.85 officers per post.

There are 1,648 correctional officers for the state's 10 prisons and 10 conservation camps. In four years, the inmate population has grown by 15 percent while the number of reported crimes in prisons has increased by 113 percent, the audit said .

In another report, auditors said that the state Division of Employment Security could cut overpayments to ineligible workers by $2.6 million a year by tapping into a national databank on unemployment payments.

Because the division's computer database lists only workers in Nevada, it cannot identify persons receiving unemployment checks who may have a job in another state or with the federal government.

The audit suggested and the division officials agreed that the division should use a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to hook into a national databank that could help track workers who are cheating by collecting unemployment while working outside of Nevada.

A proposal that candidates for the Nevada Supreme Court and District Court be barred from directly asking for campaign contributions is drawing little support so far.

Hoping to avoid potential conflicts of interest, Washoe District Judge Brent Adams asked the Nevada Supreme Court to change the rules of judicial conduct to prohibit judicial candidates from personally soliciting money for their campaigns.

Under Adams' plan, judicial candidates could establish committees to seek campaign donations. That system, he argued, would eliminate possible conflicts when lawyers appear before elected judges.

After the Supreme Court asked for comments on the idea, the state Bar of Nevada decided not to support the plan, and the state commission that disciplines judges said it was too early to make a recommendation.

Rew Goodenow, president of the state bar, said its board of governors "after extensive review and discussion" voted not to support Adams' petition. The association that represents district judges was split on Adams' plan; so it made no recommendation .

David Sarnowski, executive director of the judicial committee, said the Supreme Court should wait to see whether the 2007 Legislature starts a proposed constitutional amendment to allow judges to be appointed rather than elected.

Adams' proposal is similar to laws that have been declared unconstitutional by federal circuit courts in Minnesota and Alabama . The Supreme Court noted that the decisions in Minnesota and Alabama held that the prohibition on candidates seeking campaign donations violates their constitutional right of free speech.