Las Vegas Sun: Prison chief: 7 staff members accused of felonies (plus comments of the Spartacus Project)

From: Las Vegas Sun

Prison chief: 7 staff members accused of felonies

By Cy Ryan
Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009 | 3:31 p.m.
CARSON CITY – Inmates in the Nevada state prison system aren’t the only ones who have had brushes with the law.

There have been seven felony arrests of prison staff in recent months. One of the officers was charged with armed robbery and attempted assault on a law enforcement officer. That alleged offense occurred in Nye County.

Howard Skolnik, director of the state Department of Corrections, said he has a “serious problem” in Clark County where 29 correctional officers have been terminated. He said these were both probation and full-time officers.

“There’s 180,000 hours worth of training going out the window,” Skolnik told a Thursday meeting of the Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice. “There are weaknesses in doing our background checks."

The commission, at its first meeting since the Legislature, elected Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas, as chairman succeeding Chief Justice James Hardesty. Horne said one of the priorities of the commission this time will be victims’ rights.
The commission re-elected Attorney General Catherine Masto as chairwoman of the subcommittee on victims of crime, and Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, as selected chairman of the subcommittee on Juvenile Justice.

Skolnik told the commission there was a “pattern” of inmates who are released from the prison in Susanville, Calif., ending up in Reno. He said some of those freed from prison in Los Angeles will travel to Las Vegas.

“I suspect they will have an impact on us,” he said.
But Bernard Curtis, chief of the state Division of Parole and Probation, said Nevada transports several hundred more out of state than Nevada receives from other states.
Skolnik told the commission that the prison system is about 300 inmates below what was budgeted.

He said he hopes to know within 90 days about plans to lease the closed-down Southern Nevada Correctional Center in Clark County to a firm called Geo for $2.5 million a year.

He said Geo wants to do some cosmetic and upgrades but he wants to make sure the state can take back the prison within 180 days if there is a major increase in the number of inmates.

##

Comments by Spartacus Project:

11/14/09 at 12:49 a.m

To All concerned:

Some of these comments are right on! Others not so much.
First: To be a correctional Guard means you need psychiatric help. Nothing short of a very sick parasite would place himself/herself in a prison setting 8 to 12 hours on a daily basis.

Second: For this sick and weak person who needs a uniform to become an authoritative figure, who commands complete respect from people who can out think him/her at very turn, is a person who in need of his mommy. The correctional guards thinking is on the level of a first grader, and their thought process is that of an imbecile, following the idiotic rules of their administrative leaders.

Third: Most, if not all prison administrators, are in need of a good ass whipping--for their abusive restrictions on prisoners. Yeah, I know you think that's wrong, but go to some of the prison commissioner's meeting, and witness first hand the intellect of these leaders. Your children would puke on this wisdom!

Forth: Treatment by these intellectually deprived guards is what is taken to the outside when these prisoners are released. Why should that matter? It is you, the tax payer/citizen, that takes the hits of these men/women after release. The guard is still protected by other fools in their little prison womb. You are not! Maybe as a citizen you should remember that?

Lastly, as a comment of good standing: "Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall of one of the homes where these pathetic guards live--and witness the conversations with their families at dinner time"? It must be hysterical.

Yeah, Honey, I told this really tough guy that I run this place and you'll do whatever I tell you to do. And, after he complied, he cried like a baby--when me and my buddies beat him with our sticks and blasted him with mace. "WE" really showed this guy. You should have been there. I'd have shown you and the kids how to run a prison. And, when it was over "WE" wrote him a infraction violation, which should get him about a year in the hole. Yeah, I'm good.

And, as a personal comment, he is as good as my male pit bull that breeds his own pups!

11/14/09 at 2:39 a.m.

Sorry, I have to come back and point out the interesting comments made by the Director of Prisons. Who fails to mention that he is the responsible person who sets the policy on hiring new personnel. Shouldn't he be taking the responsibility for these failed 180,000 hours of correctional training. After all, he is the paid person on this job. In fact, $130,000.00 a year. And, as taxpayers, we, the citizens, are the payee of this failure of a man to do his job. Did I miss the point?
Now, we have the newly elected legislative chairperson, by others on the Advisory Committee, who states for all to hear this committee will only concern themselves on victims rights. Has this near sighted legislative parasite, my opinion, ever considered the word "JUSTICE"?

Why doesn't this state ever consider justice as a worthy word--when it comes to Nevada's judicial system. Nevada has many innocent persons in their prison system. If, you don't know this to be true, you shouldn't be reading this article.
Nevada's Attorney General, who represents all Nevadan's, but not really. Is a disgrace to the word justice, again--my opinion, as she also chairs some committee on Victims Rights. Think this might be a conflict of interest?

Nevada's bums have found a real place to collect their salaries--and condemn many innocent people to a life of incarceration and slavery, all in the name of safety for Nevadan's citizens. And, if you believe that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn. Nevada's prison system is nothing but job security for prison administrators and guards--all at the taxpayer's expense.

As a question: "Do you readers think it is just a joke that the OATH KEEPER'S have chartered up"? If, you are not familiar with this group of military and police seekers of Justice--you need to investigate them, and learn for yourselves what they are all about. Only you make the difference.

As a last comment on the prison commissioner's and the treatment of Nevada prisoners--listen to this: Nevada Prisoner's are fed on a daily diet of $1.27 a day. That is all inclusive for three meals. In some prisons in Nevada that is daily sack meals. And, locked down 24/7 for years. However, the feeding of the horses in this prison setting is $2.50 daily.

Still proud of your Nevada Prison System and their treatment of Nevada's prisoners? Someday, these men and women will be, once again, your salesmen, your landscapers, your car washers. your builders, your garage mechanics, your painters and your neighbors. Next time one of these men, or women, smash your face in--or kill your son or daughter, remember this is the type treatment he or she received while in prison and learned by example from our Nevada administrators and guards.

Maybe, it is time to rid ourselves of these pathetic parasites, and start over in our hiring process of decent human beings, who have a clear understanding of what is needed to correct human behavior--properly!

11/14/09 at 3:15 a.m.

To All Concerned:

Just for a minute, let's consider the guards at Lovelock State Prison, who have been conducting themselves in a disgraceful manner--by demanding prisoners place, in other prisoner's cells, contraband and knives--so said guards could find and charge said prisoners for this phony crime. This "alleged crime" could cost this prisoner years in the hole, or a lost parole date, or even a new sentence by a court.

This is what we pay our prison administrators to supervise. These guards are felons, and they act as felons. They need to be in a cell as well as some of Nevada's other prisoners. In fact, I'm going to help these felon guards get that needed cell.

I have made aware the prison administrators of this behavior. I succeeded in only getting the prisoners involved, who refused to participate in this felony behavior, transferred to another state institution, and placed in the hole for 60 days. At my constant nagging about disgraceful behavior by administrators, the men were transferred back to Lovelock--exonerated of any wrong doing, but the guards were not sanctioned. They are prancing around as though they are exempted from wrong doing.
I couldn't get an article in the news papers or the TV stations of this felony behavior, but maybe this comment will help get it out that there is a cover up at our prisons--at the highest level.

For the record: I finally went to the Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney General and the FBI. I have an appointment with the FBI on Monday for the filing of a complaint on these guards and the administrators. It will be filed under Public Corruption. What I couldn't get the Nevada Prison System to clean up--the Federal Government will do for them, and possibly, charge the prison administrators, too.
The point here is this: Nevada Prison Administrators piss off other parents--and let's rock! All of us will not place our heads under your feet.

Shame on our Nevada's News Media for being so cowardly in helping to stop the felony behavior of our parasitic guards and prison administrators, by ducking this issue. Has the State of Nevada paid for your silence? Just asking? I know how it appears to me!