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Wednesday, July 14, 2010 | 10:29 a.m.
Howard Skolnik
CARSON CITY – The director of the state Department of Corrections is taking steps to hire more officers in the aftermath of a decision by the state Prison Board on Tuesday to delay closure of the aging Nevada State Prison in Carson City.
Director Howard Skolnik said he will ask the state Board of Examiners next month to exempt correctional officers at prisons from an unpaid one-day-a-month furlough.
On Wednesday, he set in motion efforts to hire 50 more officers at the Carson City prison and the prison in Lovelock.
He said the hiring of 50 additional officers should reduce the overtime that staff is putting in.
The prison board voted 2-1 Tuesday to keep the prison open despite long-time efforts to close it. Democrats Secretary of State Ross Miller and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto overrode the attempt of Chairman Gov. Jim Gibbons to phase out the prison that was first established in 1862.
Masto and Miller told Skolnik to look for more money to keep the prison operating. Skolnik told the board that correction directors dating back at least 15 years have recommended the closure of the prison, which houses about 650 inmates.
Skolnik said training academies will be opened July 26 for new officers who are hired.
He said assaults at the Carson City prison have increased nearly 100 percent because of the more violent nature of the inmates and the old design of the prison.
Skolnik had presented a plan to the prison board to relocate 100 staff to other prisons in Carson City and Lovelock. There are enough vacant beds in the system to take care of the 650 inmates in the state prison.
The director said he must fill all the vacancies because of the possible danger to the reduced number of correctional officers. “We cannot continue to operate this way,” he said.
The Nevada prison system has the second leanest staff-to-inmate ratio in the nation, Skolnik said. The national average in prisons is 4.9 inmates per one correctional officer. In Nevada it is 7.4 inmates for each staff member.
Skolnik will ask the state Board of Examiners in August to exempt the correctional staff from the unpaid one-day-a-month furlough that is imposed on other state workers in a budget saving measure. He said Nevada is the only prison system in the nation that must adhere to such a policy.
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Once again, why does the director of prisons think that he or his department is above making the same sacrifice that the rest of the state employees must make. What this so called director must do, is resign, and they need to get someone in that position that knows how to run a prison system. Lets see, becuase of his lack of leadership, yesterday, the state was forced to pay out to the ACLU over $325K in a settlement for conditions at the Ely prison. He states that assualts have increased 100% at the Carson City prison....simple solution to this problem....LOCK THE PRISON DOWN....don't allow the inmates out of their cells, with the exception of a shower once a week and a look at the sun for an hour a month. They are in prison, stop giving them so many perks.
It will be so nice when Gibby the Clown is gone and a new (worthless) Gov is in Carson and he fires this worthless director.
Excuse me?
Most of the prison population is there because they could not get medical/mental health care for drug problems.
It could be your son or daughter next!
Yes, these prisons need a complete overhaul coming into the 21st century putting inmates in skills training so they can work in good jobs and not be a $30,000 +- year burden to us taxpayers.
Prisons cost more than schools now!
Wake up, please, before it's too late!
In 2009, Nevada had the opportunity to save tens of millions of dollars by diverting low-level,non-violent drug offenders from prison into treatment.
It was called Senate Bill 398.
The program would be modeled after Hawaii's successful HOPE program.
Why didn't the Nevada Legislature pass SB398? Why won't Rory Reid or Brian Sandoval discuss SB398 even though the SAGE Commission favors it?
Call Rory Reid and Brian Sandoval and ask them their positions on SB398.
Everyone needs to understand that Howard has certain guidelines,and rules as well as laws he must follow. Let us not forget he must follow orders by his boss.
Give up on the drug war and you won't need so many prisons. Certainly if a person commits a crime while on drugs, convict them for that crime and get them drug treatment. But stop arresting people for using drugs. Make pot legal and get some tax money.
Got to keep those moron prison guards employed regardless of the costs.
Look, Director Skolnik has determined that closing a hundred year old prison will save the state 3 to 8 million dollars a year. Keeping it open means he'll have to hire more guards. His suggestion is to move the prisoners and existing staff to other prisons (yes that means not laying anyone off) is the obvious best option. Tell me then why the 2 dems on the prison board have rejected that idea?
Seasing is 100% correct... 80% are in NV prisons because of drugs.
Yes, let's pass SB398 and get started on a new direction.
Close NSP. Period. The two Dems? They don't have a clue, apparently, about the problems that exist, or if they do, they just wanted to flex their political party muscles.
Gibbons was right to want to close that place. (I'm Independent, not a Dem or Repub.)
NV is the sun capital, next to AZ. We ought to have solar industry in prisons... residents could get breaks by buying solar products from our prison system and reap the benefits of lowered energy bills.
Inmates could have work and come out licensed in solar installations... and repairs... have pride and be able to be independent. And we could take pride in their accomplishments. At the same time we could help our nation become less oil dependent. They would jump at the chance.
I am certain that doing time could be a good thing for everybody if only prisons were run like the gaming industry... or the big corporations.
Give the inmates a piece of the pie and watch them change in a heartbeat.
We spend more on prisons than schools, for pete's sake.
Same ole' same ole' gives the same ole' results.
Where is creative thinking and problem solving?
Hire the captains of business to run the prisons like a successful business and we might pull out of this nosedive into the obsolete prison system bankrupting our state.
In closing, Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall... fell off... and all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again.