Hearing officer raps women's prison management

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Women's Prison was near collapse in the mid-1990s -- the staff was dealing drugs, participating in favoritism and allowing sexual relations between inmates, according to a hearing officer.

State Hearing Officer David Kladney said the failure of top management created "an atmosphere of bitterness and disrespect."

In a decision released Friday, Kladney blamed former Prison Director Ron Angelone for failure to pay attention to the problems that included a gross lack of security as well as staff in-fighting.

He said there was evidence upper management had liaisons with subordinates; the counseling staff had relations with inmates; the medical staff was doing and dealing drugs within the prison and the prison administration failed to fix the plumbing, heating and water supply systems, which were in a state of disrepair.

Kladney also blamed the present administration for failure to conduct follow-up investigations on some of the complaints.

His decision involved the case of Prison Sgt. Mel Vande Brake who was demoted for spreading untrue rumors about his boss, Associate Warden of Operations Janice Benzler.

Prison officials did not present substantial evidence that Vande Brake's actions posed a clear and serious threat to prison security, Kladney said.

Kladney overturned the demotion, suggesting instead a 30-day suspension.

The 23-page decision turned into an indictment of the Angelone administration at the prison. Until Warden Robin Bates took over the women's prison in Carson City, it was running amok, the report says.

"The Northern Nevada Women's Correctional Center was a failing institution, which was at risk for total collapse or even worse," Kladney found.

The prison has since been closed, and the women inmates were placed in a privately run facility in North Las Vegas.

During testimony at the appeal hearing of Vande Brake, it was revealed Benzler was living with an ex-felon. When Benzler found out the man was a former convict, she reported it to Assistant Prison Director Carl Sannicks.

The live-in relationship continued for another year before Benzler broke it off when she obtained a restraining order against the ex-convict, Brian Fedoryk. During that time the keys to the prison and its security were in the home with Fedoryk.

Kladney said the conduct of Sannicks was highly unusual in light of the rules and a case in which a correctional officer was fired for associating with an ex-convict at a bar and giving him a ride.

Bates testified the present administration of Director Bob Bayer would not tolerate an ex-convict living with any prison employee. Bayer took over after Angelone left in 1994 for Virginia.

In December 1995, Brenda Burns resigned under pressure as warden at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center after it was revealed she was involved in a relationship with a former inmate.

"Her past management has failed miserably," Kladney said. "Current management is on that road with the stonewalling of investigation to protect certain employees."

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