Saturday, March 7, 2020 | 7:03 p.m.
Inmate visitation at Nevada Department of Corrections facilities was temporarily suspended beginning Saturday morning to avoid the COVID-19 virus from potentially entering prisons, camps and transitional housing.
Attorneys and legal visits would still be allowed. The meeting areas would be sanitized after those visits, prison officials posted on social media.
Supervisors were informed of the decision at 10:20 a.m., relaying the message to visitors already at the facilities, Department of Corrections spokesman Scott Kelley said. They used the “utmost compassion and consideration to family members for the inconvenience, emphasizing this is only precautionary to protect staff, inmates, and loved ones of staff and inmates.”
Notices were subsequently posted at facility entrances and in the units for inmates to see, Kelley said.
Officials directed citizens to the Department of Corrections’ electronic messaging platform to contact their loved ones. It wasn’t clear how long the visitor suspension is expected to last.
