The Associated Press

Thu, May 8, 2008 (7:07 p.m.)

The Nevada Department of Corrections wants to start working with state and county child welfare agencies to ensure infants born to women inmates don't end up in unsafe homes or with inappropriate caregivers.

Howard Skolnik, director of Nevada's prisons, said he wants investigations of potential guardians to ensure they're suitable caregivers.

"My concern is that what we were doing, even though it was within the statutes, was not in the best interest of the child," Skolnik said Wednesday.

Prison and child welfare officials have yet to determine who would conduct the investigations and whether the proposal would be allowed under Nevada law.

The Department of Corrections allows an inmate to choose who will care for her baby. Unlike other states, the prison doesn't conduct background checks of the individual selected by an inmate.

State or county child welfare agencies get involved only if the inmate is unable to find anyone to take custody of the infant. There were 55 babies born to Nevada inmates in 2006 and 2007.

Skolnik said the desire to change procedures came after authorities learned a 3-year-old girl, who might have been born to a former Nevada prison inmate, was found during a drug bust in Green Bay, Wis., on April 22. The girl was living with a woman with an extensive criminal history who was arrested on prostitution charges during the bust.

Mike Willden, head of the Department of Health and Human Services, said agency staffers who are reviewing the placement of inmate babies have raised many questions, including whether county or state government also should get involved with pregnant inmates in jails.

In several states, government child welfare agencies conduct criminal background checks and home visits for anyone who takes custody of a baby born to inmates. Officials say that prevents newborns from being put into dangerous and unsafe living situations.

The county's child welfare system, however, can't legally intervene in an inmate's choice of a guardian if there's no evidence of abuse or neglect, said Clark County Department of Family Services spokeswoman Christine Skorupski.

Any discussion of how or whether child welfare agencies should get involved in inmates' decisions is just beginning, she added.