State prison system gets extension to handle furloughs

By Cy Ryan (contact)

Tuesday, July 14, 2009 | 1 p.m.

CARSON CITY – The guard towers surrounding state prisons may close and medical care to inmates could be curtailed to comply with the state’s monthly furloughs.

The state Board of Examiners on Tuesday gave Howard Skolnik, director of the state Department of Corrections, another 30 days to figure how he will meet the requirement, passed by the Nevada Legislature, which took effect July 1.

“We can’t ask the inmates to behave overnight,” Skolnik said.

There are 1,821 employees of the prison system that would be affected by the one-day-a-month furlough. And Skolnik is worried about the impact to safety of the public and the staff.

In voting to approve the exemption for one month, the board allocated $355,000 to pay workers during the month.

The Legislature set aside $4 million in a fund to pay for those cases where the health and safety of the public would be jeopardized if certain state employees were furloughed one day a month. The fund is to cover two years. For the prison alone, the cost would be more than $8.5 million.

Attorney General Catherine Masto said the law has a number of unintended consequences. She said prison employees have told her it will take a year, not one month, to come up with a furlough plan. Skolnik said he will need more money no matter what type of a scheduling plan he devises.

“Many of the staff will not be happy with whatever plan we have,” said Skolnik. He said any plan must not mean increased risk to the safety of the staff and inmates.

The budget approved by the Legislature provided only for 85 percent of the staff needed to run the prisons, Skolnik said. And the furloughs just add to the staffing shortage.

The examiners board approved exemptions for 122 “front line” workers in the state Employment Security Division to keep current in paying the jobless benefits to the unemployed.

Cynthia Jones, administrator of the state Division of Employment Security, said her staff piled up 75,000 hours of overtime last fiscal year with the rising number of applications for jobless benefits and the numbers are expected to continue to increase. These employees are all paid by the federal government so there would not be any savings.

The board also gave an exemption to 91 employees in the state Bureau of Disability Adjudication that processes applications for the disabled and injured. These employees are also paid by federal funds.

It also approved exemptions for 19 workers in the state Division of Forestry, which staffs fire stations in Clark and Elko counties. These workers are paid by the counties.

In the case of the prisons, Skolnik wondered if there would be increased requests for sick leave from the correctional officers. And he said these furloughs will affect the cooks, nurses and psychiatric nurses. But there must be a medical staff available 24 hours a day.

Secretary of State Ross Miller questioned the exemption for a milker of the cows at the prison farm. Skolnik said the cows need to be milked every day with the milk delivered to the other prisons. He said it was a public health issue.