Brutality by state's prison guards denied

The head of a state association for corrections officers denied an allegation by advocates for inmate rights that brutality runs rampant in Nevada's prisons.

But Ed Flagg, president of the 400-member Nevada Corrections Association, said Monday that many guards are improperly screened when they are hired and inadequately trained. He also said turnover among prison employees remains high because of low pay.

It was reported Friday that Las Vegas advocates Mercedes Maharis and Donald Hinton, in their Spartacus Project report, alleged that beatings generally occur after inmates are restrained and cuffed. They said guards are seldom punished.

But Flagg said few guards operate outside institutional policies and those who do are usually dismissed. While guards must often restrain unruly inmates by handcuffing them and placing them face down on the ground, he said he has not witnessed any brutality in his 12 years as a corrections officer.

"When you have 1,400 sworn prison officers you will have four or five bad apples," Flagg said. "But many of the allegations in their report are just that, allegations. There have been plenty of internal investigations about alleged wrongdoing by the staff and 99 percent have proved to be false allegations by inmates."

Maharis, who has taught Buddhist meditation to inmates since 1997, said the state should replace internal investigations with an independent review panel of citizens who have no connection to law enforcement.

"I'd put housewives, doctors and businessmen on the panel, anyone who has not been indoctrinated," Maharis said.

The state could avoid "bad apples" by giving prison guard job applicants psychological examinations and by doing a better job on background checks, Flagg said. But he also said as many as 200 corrections officers now in the system went to work in prisons before receiving any academy training.

He said the state needs to operate more academies. He also said the state ought to increase training from the current five-week stint to eight weeks at the academy plus an additional eight weeks in a prison. California, by comparison, requires corrections officers to go through a 16-week live-in academy, he said.

"There needs to be on-the-job type training instead of sitting behind a desk at the academy eight or nine hours a day," Flagg said. "There should be more role playing."

Maharis said guards, who are now required to have only high school degrees or general equivalency diplomas, ought to have college degrees and at least a one-year prison internship before becoming corrections officers.

"You're dealing with people with complex wellness issues, physical and mental," Maharis said. "You don't put teachers in a classroom until they've had four years of training. No one will be able to work with prisoners effectively unless they have extensive knowledge of human behavior."

But Flagg labeled as untrue many allegations in the Spartacus report, such as inadequate health care, disrespect for inmate mail and lack of access by prisoners in intake to pencils and paper to contact attorneys and relatives. Maharis, however, said she can document each of those allegations through her contacts with hundreds of male inmates.

They agreed that some of the paperwork and timekeeping snafus mentioned in the Spartacus report could be corrected if the state Parole and Probation Division were transferred to the Department of Prisons from the Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety.

Flagg also said the 22-percent annual turnover rate among Nevada corrections officers, which he said compares to a national rate of about 15.4 percent, also creates inconsistencies in the way guards handle inmates. He said many guards leave state employment because they can make up to 65 percent more money with other law enforcement agencies.

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