Officials concerned about plan to use inmates as telemarketers

News accounts of the program caught Gov. Bob Miller, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, and Secretary of State Dean Heller, the three members of the state Prison Board, off guard.

Miller's press secretary, Gordon Absher, said Thursday that the governor has asked Prison Director Bob Bayer "to re-examine the whole proposal with a specific eye toward security measures."

And Del Papa said her office will ask the 1999 Legislature to ban prison inmates from being used as telemarketers.

Heller said he's disappointed that Bayer didn't inform him of the program when they met recently to discuss prison issues, adding, "It would have been a courtesy."

The issue will be discussed Aug. 27 at the state Board of Examiners when the contract comes up for approval.

Since the plan was disclosed July 31, there have been letters and telephone comments to newspapers, most of them opposed to allowing inmates to use the phones.

Some people are worried about the convicts harassing their children. Law enforcement workers are concerned that prisoners will get their unlisted home telephone numbers.

Prison Industries Director Howard Skolnik insisted inmates wouldn't call homes or businesses in Nevada.

Skolnik said the calls would be out of state, and focused on convincing businesses, not homeowners, to switch their long-distance service.

Under the proposed contract, Telenet International Inc., in Las Vegas, would hire 200 inmates at Lovelock, paying $4.50 for each business that switches.

Inmates must pay part of that for room and board, and part of the money goes to reimburse victims of crime. The cost of the program would be paid by Telenet.

Nationally, there are 456 inmates working in 14 other states in telemarketing programs, Skolnik said. In some, the inmates actually get Social Security numbers or credit cards - something he said wouldn't happen in Nevada.

In Washington this year, an inmate telemarketing program was suspended after a convicted rapist sent a suggestive card to a woman who assumed he was a park ranger and gave him her name and address for brochures.

But Skolnik said sex offenders can't work in the Nevada program. He also noted that a telemarketing program at the state prison in Jean, where inmates try to get people to buy medical books, has resulted in few complaints.

The Skidmore-Roth Publishing Co. of Colorado utilizes that program.