Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

ANALYSIS:

Nevada prisons chief not backing off efforts to modernize, reform

Commencement Ceremony in Women's Prison

Steve Marcus

James Dzurenda, director of the Nevada Department of Corrections, responds to a question from a reporter following a commencement ceremony at the Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Center on Smiley Road Wednesday, May 25, 2016. About 50 female inmates received a high school diploma, a GED, or a vocational certificate. One inmate received a college degree.

When James Dzurenda would talk to his old colleagues and professional acquaintances about some of the peculiarities he’d encountered in his new job as director of the Nevada Department of Corrections, they often did two things.

They’d laugh. Then, when they saw he wasn’t kidding, they’d ask how the state had avoided being sued.

Dzurenda, the top administrator of the department since April 2016, came to Nevada from Connecticut, where he’d risen through the ranks of that state’s corrections department to become its commissioner.

In Nevada, he said, he found policies, practices and procedures that almost certainly would have triggered litigation on the East Coast. Among them was the department’s use of birdshot — 20-gauge shotguns firing shells containing lead pellets — which most prisons had long ago abandoned in favor of less-lethal methods like rubber bullets.

Dzurenda discontinued use of the firearms and has kept pushing to bring the Nevada prison system more in line with modern corrections standards.

Most recently, he prompted reforms aimed at reducing recidivism by focusing counseling resources toward a target group of inmates — chiefly drug offenders and inmates who committed property crimes related to their drug abuse, and are considered to have a moderate to high likelihood of re-offending. Corrections officials have set a target of 50 percent reduction in recidivism among those inmates over a five-year period. The program is being funded by a nearly $1 million federal Second Chance Act grant.

In a related development, Nevada has partnered with the Vera Institute of New York to study how to reduce the use of solitary confinement. The study is being funded by a $2.2 million federal grant.

During a conversation with the Sun last week, Dzurenda said the department’s goal was two-fold — to give inmates a more legitimate opportunity for rehabilitation and to improve public safety. Given that the Nevada system was scheduled to release a minimum of 12,000 inmates over the next 18 years, he said, it was critical from a public safety standpoint to take steps to reduce recidivism.

Toward that end, Dzurenda changed the department’s longstanding mission statement from merely watching, supervising and detaining inmates to rehabilitating inmates and preparing them to successfully reintegrate into communities.

The mission statement, which had been in place for years, was symbolic of the state prison system, where several outdated procedures and philosophies had become entrenched.

An example was the department’s previous practice of segregating inmates with HIV by housing them separately and denying them access to work assignments that could shorten their prison terms.

Dzurenda, acting on a complaint lodged by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, changed the practice in the summer of 2016. Inmates with HIV are no longer separated or excluded from opportunities to earn credits in work camps that can speed their release. He also instituted protections to keep inmates’ HIV status confidential and ordered new training for staff and inmates about how HIV is transmitted.

Dzurenda has faced blowback from corrections staff in pushing forward with changes, but he’s repeatedly shown he’s able to push past it and keep pressing to modernize the system.

Beats being a laughingstock. Definitely beats getting sued.

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