Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Nevada inmates’ health conditions amid pandemic spur call for independent probe

Silver

Scott Kelley / Nevada Department of Corrections via AP

In an April 6, 2020, photo released by the Nevada Department of Corrections, an inmate at Northern Nevada Correctional Center produces containers of Silver State Industries hand sanitizer in Carson City.

A group that advocates for Nevada inmates is seeking answers from the state prison system on what they say has been an ineffective and damaging pandemic response.

A wide-ranging report released last week by Return Strong: Families United for Justice for the Incarcerated alleges conditions inside Nevada Department of Corrections facilities over the last year and a half have ranged from frustrating to deadly.

“We would like an independent investigation to be initiated by the governor’s office because it is clear that NDOC needs oversight,” Return Strong founder Jodi Hocking said Thursday.

NDOC did not respond to several requests for comment.

Heidi McCafferty, a graduate student in criminology at the University of London, combed through more than 1,000 letters from NDOC inmates. The analysis is for her dissertation, and Hocking said it is “legitimizing” the accounts from inmates and their families.

“This report and the analysis really highlight the deprivation and the misery so many of them have experienced over the last 18 months,” McCafferty said.

Based on the inmates’ letters, Return Strong said the COVID-19 pandemic has led to extended “quarantine” lockdowns that have impacted physical and mental health; restricted access to phones, showers, programming and visits; a lack of medical care for COVID and non-coronavirus conditions; and less food.

“Pretty much all rights and privileges have been revoked under the false guise of ‘protecting’ us from COVID,” according to one letter excerpted in Return Strong’s report.

Inmates also said staff aren’t following masking or other pandemic protocols. Additionally, hundreds of inmates reported transfers between prisons and units that led to mixing of sick and healthy inmates, despite public assurances that this would not happen.

Amanda Candelaria’s fiancé is at Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City. He’s been incarcerated for 16 years, and the pandemic conditions are the worst he said he’s ever seen inside, she said.

When he contracted the virus himself, he described getting no medical help — not even acetaminophen. He rode out his illness. Others around him did not: 25 Nevada inmates have died of COVID-19 since 2020, according to state health department data.

“I understand that no one really knew how to handle this virus, but that doesn’t excuse the disregard for human life,” Candelaria said.

Hocking said her organization wants to work with NDOC but hasn’t gotten through, nor has it seen any of its suggestions implemented.

She said there are two versions of what’s happening inside prison walls: the government’s and the inmates’.

“How do we take those two things and blend them to do something better?” she said.

As of Friday, about 4,700 inmates and 1,200 staff members across NDOC have come down with COVID-19, with 49 inmates and three staffers dying of the virus, according to state data. (The Marshall Project tallies 57 inmate deaths from COVID; the journalism nonprofit, with the Associated Press, says Nevada has the country’s highest prisoner death rate per 10,000 inmates.)

Hocking said she supports the coronavirus vaccine mandate for state employees, which includes prison correctional officers. But she fears that enough staffers who choose not to get vaccinated will leave their jobs, exacerbating the system’s chronic understaffing issues and making life even harder for inmates.

State employees have until Nov. 1 to get vaccinated.

Meanwhile, Candelaria said she fears a repeat of last winter’s systemwide outbreak.

“NDOC is responsible for the people within their prisons and they need to do better for our loved ones,” she said. “Don’t let last year’s mistakes happen again. Our loved ones’ lives depend on it.”