Prisons chief to make pitch for no guard furloughs

Citing danger, he wants COs to stay exempt

Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009 | 2 a.m.

State prison system gets extension to handle furloughs (7-14-09)

Archive of Sun politics stories

Carson City — Prisons Director Howard Skolnik will repeat his plea this week that the state’s 1,600 to 1,700 corrections officers be exempted from monthly furloughs.

Since July Skolnik has won two reprieves from the mandatory days off without pay, which lawmakers adopted for most state employees to help balance the state budget.

Skolnik goes before the Board of Examiners attempting to extend the Corrections Department’s exemption through June 2011. Granting the request would cost the state an additional $7.6 million.

The prisons chief will argue that prisons would become more dangerous with furloughs. Visiting hours might have to be cut or, in some cases, eliminated. Programs for inmates would be reduced.

In the past Skolnik has argued that the budget approved by the Legislature provided only 85 percent of the staff needed to run the prisons. Furloughs would add to the staffing shortage, he maintains.

If the board — composed of Gov. Jim Gibbons, Secretary of State Ross Miller and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto — approves the request, it will also have to be cleared by the Legislative Interim Finance Committee before it takes effect.

•••

Utah, Nevada draft water agreement (8-13-09)

Abigail C. Johnson, who owns land in and is a part-time resident of Snake Valley in Eastern Nevada, is skeptical of the tentative agreement between Utah and Nevada to share the valley’s water.

Johnson is one of about 30 people who have submitted comments to the state Conservation and Natural Resources Department on the proposed agreement, officials said. The public comment period on the agreement ends this week.

Allen Biaggi, director of the department, said negotiators from the two states will consider the comments and could make changes to their agreement.

Biaggi said some of the comments argue against the withdrawal of water from the Snake Valley.

Nevada and Utah have tentatively agreed 134,000 acre-feet of water per year is available in the valley and plan to split it evenly between the states.

In her comments to the state, Johnson, a member of the Great Basin Water Network, said she thinks there is less than 134,000 acre-feet and that the agreement will only facilitate the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s water pipeline project.

The water authority has plans for a $35 billion pipeline to transfer water from valleys in Eastern Nevada to Las Vegas.

The water authority has applied to extract 50,000 acre-feet per year from the valley in White Pine County. The negotiators are recommending action on the application be postponed until September 2019.

Congress ordered the two states to work out an agreement on the allocation and management of the ground water in the valley, which straddles the state line.

•••

Nevada has received $45,000 from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to stage mock elections in schools.

The Nevada Voting Day program aims to increase political participation by staging the mock elections and giving students the opportunity to research campaign issues, watch voting machine demonstrations and visit with candidates.

During the 2008 elections 23,800 students in 111 schools statewide voted in mock elections.

The Secretary of State’s office will provide election training and fiscal oversight of the project. The state Education Department will sign up schools to participate.

“The mock election provides students with a real experience of the electoral process,” Secretary of State Ross Miller said in a statement. “We hope to instill the importance of political participation in an active and responsible generation.

Discussion: 8 comments so far…

By geezelouise

9/29/09 at 3:15 a.m.

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Dir. Skolnik will use any excuse to flaunt his power over the legislature.

Cut programs? Cut visiting? Not a good idea Mr. Skolnik. Unless you just want to keep the prisons full. Have you read any of those studies on recividism?
By nvwilnd

9/29/09 at 6:08 a.m.

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Lets see... I don't see a problem in cutting visiting hours, or cutting programs.
A simple plan would be LOCK DOWN. If you don't have enough staff to watch everything and everybody, LOCK em DOWN. Problem solved.

As a state employee who has to take a furlough day, I expect everyone else to have to do it also. Public safety is my job, so don't go throwing out that the correctional officers are out there protecting us....I'm doing the same thing.... So, Lockem down and the problem is solved, and the State saves money.
By joeg

9/29/09 at 6:53 a.m.

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Instead of wasting time and effort debating what should or shouldnt be done, how about stop paying employees admin leave pay for months on end so they can sit at home? If they are on administrative leave pending investigation they should get nothing. If they are found to not have done anything wrong THEN you pay them the back pay in alottments. Come on people, really? Are you serious? Paying people to sit at home is ridiculous. Granted if they are injured then they should be rec. workers comp. NOT FULL PAY FOR 9 MONTHS. This is just stupid if the administrators cant see it or wont see it. You want to save the state money? QUIT STEALING FROM IT. Or are administrators receiving a kickback from the ADMIN lleave personnel? Just a question NOT an accusation. Maybe there should be a non-biased insight committee to oversee and also investigate monetary allocations to ensure there is no FRAUD,WASTE AND ABUSE.
By Fisherman

9/29/09 at 9:29 a.m.

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I am a state employee Every person in my office has to take a furlough day. Fair is fair. If prisons can't take furlough days, then they should take a cut in pay equal to a furlough day.
By positivechange

9/29/09 at 3:35 p.m.

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Lock 'em down? Lock 'em down? Are you discriminating against Nevada prisoners, some of whom are innocent, many of whom are mentally ill? They barely have enough food and clothing and they certainly don't need to be driven more crazy with more solitary confinement.

Let me lock you down in your bathroom for a weekend and you'll get a taste of what you recommend.

NV prisoner correspondence course material is being disposed of by mailroom officers... with no consequences for US mail tampering.

Nevada prisoners are hanging themselves in their cells, or didn't you know?

Maybe that's because their families don't get to visit them already. How many more hangings do you want to cause and it is YOU who will have caused them by spouting such redneck garbage.

Get informed, for the love of god, before you unilaterally condemn more prisoners to lockdown and death... and further embarrass yourself... because you don't know anything about what lockdown means or does to human beings.

Poor administration this request, once again, very old school and totally lame.

Release parole violators and low crime prisoners... put them into community service and they can stay home, saving 7.2 million instead of costing 7.2 million more.

R U asking for another Chino?

Educate them so they won't come back! What a concept! Give them medical so they don't break the medicaid bank when they have monstruous hospital bills after coming out half dead from the hep C that's rampant inside.

Lock 'em up is just plain stupid, ignorant, irresponsible... and downright sadistic. How dare you.
By spartacusproject

9/29/09 at 3:42 p.m.

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To All:

Joeg has it right--this state needs an oversight committee to investigate every inch of every crawl space in the Nevada Department of Corrections. This Howard Skolnut, head of the department of corrections is one large, big, cry baby, and he is the most vile administrator since Atilla the Hun.

From under what rock does Nevada Governor's dig these mentally challenged animals? Governor Gibbons is just likely to find himself in a prison cell himself. After all he is an alleged, and identified, as an attempted rapist. What makes him so special that prison concerns fail to interest him?

How about, as Geezelouise suggests, put some of these people to the streets. That right there is a savings to the taxpayers. Why should millions of $$ keep feeding this corrupted system of prison administrators and guards--which professes to "correct" convicted people, but in reality is nothing more than feeding depot for a corrupted sump hole of parasites. That's my opinion.

To those of you on the street, and/or about to lose your homes--wouldn't you like some of that wasted money on these sleazy fools to be--used to try and save your taxes and homes? Only you can stop this insanity of "Tough on Crime nonsense".

That slogan has long ago wasted into thin air. It was a farce, and a lie to the public. It was initiated to bring in more taxes from the paying public, to support the 2nd biggest industry in Nevada, The Nevada Department of corrections, and Nevada's administrator's idiot relatives. Aren't you proud?

Send home the non-violent prisoners and the unjustly convicted ones, and all probation violators. How silly can this prison department, and Howard Skolnut, Director, continue to be?

Here is a rumor: E.K. McDaniels of Ely Prison, warden--is retiring. One can only hope. He needs to get his pension started before he goes to prison himself for the cruelty he has inflicted on others. The man is an sadist and that opinion is shared by many Nevadan citizens.

Have a nice day...

Spartacus
By joeknows

9/30/09 at 10:16 a.m.

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Another alternative that would save the state a lot of money....

Only pay the physicians that are employed by corrections for the hours they actually work. Some work as little as 12 hours a week while getting paid for a full 40.
By spartacusproject

9/30/09 at 2:03 p.m.

Suggest removal

To Joeknows:

Sir, you've got this prison nonsense, that is robbing the Nevada taxpayer blind--down pat.

I don't care to ask how you know, but your comment is exactly right. What passes for doctors in the prison system is pathetic and absurd. One of the last doctors in Ely State Prison, Nevada's maximum prison for men--was a gynecologist. How skilled was he in a man's prison?

Same situation applies to the dentists, who work only part time--if at all. Only teeth extractions. How sane is that? A cavity in a front tooth leaves one with a gaping hole in their smile.

This is what our tax dollars produces for Nevada.?

The governor, down to the lowly guard, must be done away with. That is the start of stupidity in the administration to the ignorant abuse of prison guards. We've all heard this before: "If it isn't broken--don't fix it, but if broken--tear it down and start over".

That slogan needs to be given to the idiots that run this state, and as citizens--we should demand it be done!

Thanks for your insightful and truthful comment.

Have a nice day to you and yours.

Spartacusproject@yahoo.com

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