Prison security, furloughs in question after recent attacks

By Cy Ryan

Tuesday, April 12, 2011 | 12:28 p.m.

CARSON CITY – Two recent attacks on employees in the state prison system are not due to a furlough policy, said Greg Cox, acting director of the state Department of Corrections.

But Kevin Ranft of the American Federation of Federal, State and Municipal Employees, says the attacks were the result of short staffing levels.

"Somebody is going to get killed,” Ranft told the state Board of Examiners on Tuesday. “Somebody has already been injured.”

Cox told the board there hasn't been an increase in incidents since the start of a policy at the prison to have employees take off one day a month in a budget-saving measure.

“There is no correlation” between the two incidents in the last month and the furlough policy, he said. A nurse was assaulted at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center and an employee was attacked at the Ely State Prison.

“Inmates are very problematic at times," Cox said. “We will continue to monitor it.”

But Ranft urged an independent investigation of the effect of the furlough policy. Nevada is the only state where correctional officers take furloughs and the state has the lowest ratio of guards compared to other prisons in the nation.

Continuing this policy puts the staff and the public at risk, Ranft said.

The examiners board reviewed the furlough policy and no action was taken.

The board did approve the corrections department adding $33,000 to a contract with the Nevada System of Higher Education for job readiness training of inmates near their release.

The program now being conducted at Casa Grande penal institution will be extended to the High Desert, Southern Desert and the women’s prison in Clark County.