Prison marks time: 1 year of progress

NORTH LAS VEGAS -- When the nation's largest owner of privately run prisons attracted negative publicity because of escapes and fatal stabbings at its Ohio penitentiary, the news didn't faze this city.

The Corrections Corporation of America found itself on the front page of the Wall Street Journal Aug. 5 for all the wrong reasons. Yet the company's Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Facility, which celebrates its first anniversary next month, is considered a model occupant by local officeholders and prison officials.

Before becoming mayor of North Las Vegas, Mike Montandon participated in a citizens' group that successfully blocked an attempt to build the prison near homes. The facility was constructed instead in a remote industrial area near Lamb Boulevard and Interstate 15. Montandon attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony after he took office.

"To us as a city they're virtually invisible," Montandon said. "Nobody is complaining about it. The only neighbors out there are auto junkyards."

The prison, which houses about 525 women, has its critics. A leading Nevada union official alleged that the facility has not been as cost-effective as advertised. Two inmates wrote to the Sun with complaints ranging from racism to shoddy prison construction.

"The first concern should be for the health and safety of the public, but private prisons are run for only one reason and that's profit," said Bob Gagnier, executive director of the State of Nevada Employees Association. "My sources tell me they do not have adequate control of the inmates and don't know where all their inmates are at any one time."

Even the facility's spokesman, Rich Douglas, conceded the prison was going through growing pains. But Douglas and Howard Skolnik, assistant director of the Nevada Department of Prisons, said the North Las Vegas facility was about as incident-free as could be expected for a prison.

"I feel the public is protected, the staff is safe and the inmates are safe, and that's the primary concern we have for this facility," Skolnik said. "The programs there are state-of-the-art. It's the only facility in the state with a therapeutic community and inmate support groups (to combat addictions)."

Everyone from convicted killers to thieves and substance abusers roams the white-washed corridors. The state's only female death row inmate is housed there. They have their share of fights, but there have been no riots or reported stabbings.

There have been two escapes, but both occurred the first month of operation from minimum-security work details. One woman turned herself in within a few days, and the other was detained by local authorities, also within days. Douglas said the gaps in supervision were immediately resolved.

"We must provide direct line-of-sight supervision for minimum-custody inmates," Douglas said. "That got clarified right away."

The men's facility in Youngstown, Ohio, became a nightmare by contrast. Ohio Gov. George Voinovich last month threatened to close the prison following 13 stabbings and an escape by six inmates, including five murderers. The Youngstown mayor regretted allowing the year-old prison to be built there.

The corporation, which operates 78 prisons in the United States, Great Britain and Australia, vowed to make changes in the face of embarrassing publicity and plunging stock prices. One problem was that the medium-security facility accepted hardened criminals from overflowing prisons in Washington, D.C. A federal court subsequently diverted 113 inmates to maximum-security penitentiaries.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that the corporation had problems elsewhere. Texas authorities complained in 1996 they were unaware a company facility holding illegal immigrants facing deportation also accepted 200 sex offenders from Oregon. The problem came to light when two of the offenders escaped the facility, but the company argued that the inmates were properly placed.

South Carolina discontinued its contract with the corporation at a juvenile detention facility after learning that some boys were allegedly mistreated. The company won't comment because of pending litigation. Tennessee authorities also reported that the company's medium-security prison in Clifton, Tenn., had 28 percent more serious incidents than the statewide average for 1997. The company told the Journal that it used stricter reporting standards.

Douglas said none of the negative publicity has affected morale among the 165 full-time employees at the women's prison.

"It's a huge company with a lot of prisons," he said. "There are different challenges with different types of prison populations."

The North Las Vegas facility is the company's third all-female prison, and the only privately owned penitentiary in Nevada. With government turning increasingly to private industry to help deliver services, the state gambled that Corrections Corporation could help alleviate its overcrowded prisons. Skolnik predicted the state would need at least 100 additional beds within two years to handle its skyrocketing female inmate population.

The state pays the company about $52 per day per inmate. Built into that rate is repayment for the $28 million prison, which the state will own in 20 years. The corporation is under contract to operate the prison for at least the first five years, but that partnership can be extended by mutual consent. The company has indicated it can save taxpayers 10 to 15 percent by operating the prison.

"These women will be in our neighborhoods when they leave," Douglas said. "We certainly want them to have opportunities to be safer and healthier when they leave than when they came in."

Most of the inmates were transferred to North Las Vegas from an aging state prison in Carson City, a transition Skolnik said went smoothly. The prisoners range in age from 17 to 70-plus. Supervision also varies from the closed custody of death row inmate Priscilla Ford -- who killed six people on a Reno sidewalk with her car in 1980 -- to community trustees. The latter hold outside jobs without prison supervision but must return to the facility each day.

The women are divided mostly into two wings, one medium-security, the other minimum-security. Minimum-security inmates have greater access to prison rehabilitation programs and work assignments, and they generally have less than 18 months remaining on their sentences.

Most room two to a cell and are required to be in their cells for five separate head counts each day.

Douglas said the state prison department determines the appropriate security level for each inmate. Discipline, inmate grievance procedures and correctional-officer training also follow guidelines established by the state, he said.

A state prison department monitor also is stationed at the facility to serve as a liaison between the state and corporation. But Gagnier, whose union represents 900 employees in Nevada's other prisons, criticized the monitor for having a background in auditing rather than corrections.

Skolnik said, however, that the monitor has been a prison department employee for several years and was trained to handle complaints about the facility.

"We're talking about the monitoring of the contract," he said. "A person with a corrections background doesn't have that experience."

Gagnier also questioned the extent to which a privately run prison could be held accountable for violating an inmate's civil rights.

"We're talking about some serious legal issues as far as incarceration is concerned," he said.

Gagnier said Voinovich and Youngstown authorities raised legitimate concerns about Corrections Corporation following the prison escape in Ohio.

"If someone escapes, who is responsible for the costs?" Gagnier said. "That's what the sheriff (in Youngstown) wanted to know. Who was going to pay for your deputies' overtime?"

But New Mexico prison system spokesman Mike Toms defended the company, which opened its first all-female facility in Grants, N.M., and had its contract recently renewed there.

"I don't know why we would hold private prisons to a higher standard," Toms said. "They're getting a bad rap. Look at the number of public prisons that have escapes."

And Assemblywoman Kathy Von Tobel, R-Las Vegas, a member of the local prison's community relations board, said she was impressed with the educational and vocational programs provided in the North Las Vegas facility.

Twenty inmates graduated last June from a Clark County high school conducted within the prison, while 45 others earned GEDs. The prison also offers training in computer word-processing and horticulture and has minimum-wage jobs in repackaging returned retail goods for discount stores. One portion of the prison is devoted to inmates with drug and alcohol addictions.

"I've talked to a number of inmates, and they said it was better here than in Carson City," Von Tobel said. "The conditions are more than adequate. The classrooms are full. Women who thought they could never learn are studying together.

"I felt the inmates were friendly with one another and on a first-name basis with the warden."

But inmates Leslie Brown and Lee Doris Jefferson wrote to the Sun that conditions at the prison were anything but civil. Brown, a habitual criminal with a life sentence, has been incarcerated since 1993 and won't be eligible for parole until 2003. Jefferson, convicted of burglary and forgery, has been in prison since 1995 but is scheduled to be released on Sept. 7.

Both women had already lodged complaints with the state's monitor, but Douglas and Skolnik said most of the concerns were superficial and had no impact on health or safety.

Among the inmates' complaints:

* There isn't enough room for visitors with children.

* There is peeling paint, cracked walls and ceilings.

* Caucasian women have an easier time switching cell mates than do racial minorities.

* Rules are often changed without the warden's knowledge.

* The prison conducted a fire drill in which some women were released from their cells while others were not.

* Inmates are often served cold food or food not on the daily menu.

Douglas, who doubles as manager of the medium-security wing, said visitation was heavy when the prison first opened last fall but has leveled off. The visitation area includes 14 tables with enough room for inmates to see up to five visitors at a time. A separate play area where inmates can be with small children is attached.

"We've never had to turn people away," Douglas said. "We've never been overcrowded."

Any cracks or peeling paint are cosmetic and have no impact on the inmates' safety or the structural integrity of the prison, Douglas added. Brown and Jefferson also complained that some doors and control panels didn't work properly, but Douglas said electrical or mechanical glitches were usually fixed the same day. Skolnik added that glitches in new buildings weren't uncommon.

"If you had seen the facility in Carson City, peeling paint and cracked walls would have been an improvement," he said.

Douglas said requests for bed changes were common but denied that race was an issue.

"If I can accommodate the inmate, I'll do it," Douglas said. "They live in close quarters so it's natural to feel uncomfortable. But we don't want to uproot someone every time they're not getting along with their roommate."

Each inmate receives a handbook of prison rules. Douglas said, however, that supervisors can adjust to particular situations without seeking the warden's permission as long as other procedures or laws aren't violated.

"We try to find ways to make things run better," he said. "We're sensitive that every time there are changes even little things can have a tremendous impact on inmates."

The prison conducts periodic fire drills, but Douglas said it is common to limit an exercise to one portion of the prison.

"If there is a fire in one part of a facility, it doesn't mean you have to evacuate the entire facility," he said. "We have fire evacuation routes posted all over the building, out to the outer yard. We have the ability to evacuate the entire building without compromising security."

Douglas said the food complaints were mostly unfounded. The prison serves hot meals three times each day on weekdays, and twice on both Saturdays and Sundays. The state requires only two hot meals per day, he said. Douglas also noted that 90 percent of the staff eats the prison food on a regular basis.

The prison sometimes runs out of popular food, such as pizza and tacos, but Douglas said they are usually replaced with comparable items. Douglas also said the prison has eliminated unpopular food.

"We don't want to waste food," he said. "There's no reason to serve food they won't eat."

archive