Telemarketing plan at prison upsets officials

CARSON CITY -- A program to put 200 inmates at the state prison in Lovelock to work as telemarketers is generating public controversy and some state elected officials are a little uncomfortable.

Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, for example, will be asking the 1999 Legislature to pass a law prohibiting inmates from being used as telemarketers.

The program caught Gov. Bob Miller, Del Papa, and Secretary of State Dean Heller, the three members of the state Prison Board, off guard. They learned of it through the newspapers.

Miller's press secretary, Gordon Absher, said Thursday 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 that her office's Bureau of Consumer Affairs will be asking the 1999 Legislature to ban prison inmates from being used as telemarketers. Del Papa generally supports the prison system and its programs.

"This puts me between a rock and a hard place," she said.

Heller said he is disappointed that Bayer did not inform him of the program when they met 10 days ago to discuss prison issues.

"It would have been a courtesy" for him to reveal the plan, Heller said.

Since the unveiling of the plan July 31, there have been letters and telephone comments in newspapers, most of them opposed to allowing inmates to use the phones. People are worried about the convicts harassing their children. Law enforcement officials are concerned that prisoners will get their unlisted home telephone numbers and people, in general, don't like the idea of inmates soliciting business over the telephone.

Prison Industries Director Howard Skolnik, trying "to put out some of the firestorm," said Thursday the inmates will not be calling homes or businesses in Nevada. The calls will be all out of state. These calls will 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 call businesses. Telenet would pay $4.50 for each business that switches. Inmates must pay a portion of that for room and board and part of the money goes to reimburse victims of crime.

The cost of the program, Skolnik said, will be paid by Telenet. The calls will go "to people out of state. Why not have the state and Nevada taxpayers benefit from this?" he questioned.

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. That won't happen in Nevada, he said, because once a business agrees to switch, a supervisor will take over, getting the required information.

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

Skolnik said sex offenders will not be allowed to work in the Nevada program.

There's been a telemarketing program at the state prison in Jean where inmates, hired by the Skidmore-Roth Publishing Co., of Colorado, telephone businesses trying to get them to buy medical books. There's been few complaints.

Skolnik said there will be one supervisor to every 25 inmates. All calls will be taped and the prison officers on the graveyard shift will review them to make sure there is nothing improper said. The prisoners will not have pens or pencils to write down the numbers. Calls will not be made to unlisted phone numbers. No addresses will be available.

Skolnik said inmates will be searched before and after each shift so they don't smuggle telephone numbers back into the cellblock.

Inmates who misbehave will be sent to the maximum security prison in Ely, Skolnik said.

Del Papa said issue will be discussed Aug. 27 at the state Board of Examiners when the contract must be approved.

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