Latest news with #Dzurenda
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Prison guard musical chairs incurs $60 million in overtime, $50 million shortfall
Nevada Department of Corrections Director James Dzurenda. (Legislative stream screengrab) The Nevada Department of Corrections is racking up $60 million in overtime a year because of the need to shift correction officers from one post to another to address staffing shortages, resulting in a $50 million dollar budgeting shortfall that took lawmakers by surprise during a hearing Thursday of the Interim Finance Committee. NDOC Director James Dzurenda told lawmakers he was instructed by the Governor's Finance Office last year that the department's personnel shortage could not be addressed until a staffing study initiated in 2024 is completed in June. Dzurenda testified the department is 'usually about $60 million short on day one' of a biennium because of overtime demands. He predicted the study will 'be devastating' and reveal a biennial shortfall of 'over $100 million.' 'So you're saying that your agency told the governor's office… 'hey, we're going to run into huge deficits. We're going to overspend like nobody's business in overtime,' and they were aware of this, and they just didn't bring it to our attention until March?' an incredulous Sen. Rochelle Nguyen asked Dzurenda. 'I don't know when they brought it to your attention, but these discussions have been happening since I got here in '23,' Dzurenda responded. 'We knew we were going to be short, and I'm telling you, we're going to be short next time, too.' Lombardo did not respond to a request for comment. The governor, when asked about economic concerns in recent months, has repeatedly referred to 'triaging' the state through any fiscal storm. Triaging in the state prison department amounts to reducing visitation and shifting in-person educational programming to correspondence courses. The overtime problem, Dzurenda said, 'is complicated' and involves a number of variables, such as delays in obtaining a staffing study to substantiate the need for additional positions; unbudgeted costs such as transporting prisoners; staffing NDOC's training academy; and the cost of overtime provisions included in a collective bargaining agreement negotiated in 2023 for correction officers. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro told Dzurenda if he was aware of a 'regular, ongoing use of overtime monies,' a request should have been made for 'a reserve of X amount of dollars that we believe we are going to have to pay overtime.' Instead, she argued Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo's administration 'turned a blind eye to it,' leaving lawmakers 'halfway through a legislative session, to figure out how to fill that hole.' One corrections officer has racked up 1,600 hours of overtime since the fiscal year began, 'which puts you on track to work 80-hour weeks,' Nguyen said, adding she was 'incredibly disappointed' and branded the episode 'a failure on so many levels.' NDOC's current solution, she added, cuts the education programs that 'from what we've heard from you, Director, over and over and over again, actually make those prisons safer for your correction officers and safer for the people that are incarcerated in there. Is that my understanding?' 'Yes,' Dzurenda replied. Democratic Assemblywoman Danielle Monroe Moreno, a former corrections officer, voiced a 'need to apologize' to Dzurenda, adding she didn't know if the governor or the Legislature had put him in a situation that 'is not winnable.' 'We have a responsibility to make sure that you get what you need for your staff to be safe and the inmates in our charge to be safe,' she said, and directed NDOC to seek additional funding during the legislative interim. In other IFC developments, Monroe Moreno warned agencies with projects funded by American Rescue Plan funds, which will revert to the federal government if not spent by the end of next year, that because of President Donald Trump's tariffs, increasing costs of construction and goods could jeopardize their timely completion.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
$15 million for Nevada prison recreation yards part of requests in state budgets
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Three budgets seeking nearly $15 million to fix up outdoor recreation yards at three of Nevada's biggest prisons are just part of spending plans reviewed Tuesday in Carson City. It's part of millions budgeted for better security in areas for outdoor recreation, inmate shower stalls, door locks and new swamp coolers as the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC) works to fix lingering problems at prison facilities statewide. More people behind bars means more taxpayer funding for prisons. NDOC Director James Dzurenda described what's planned at High Desert State Prison, just northwest of Las Vegas on U.S. 95. He said regular chain link fencing had been used in a prison yard 'for higher-security offenders that have to either be separated or have continuous gang issues between each other.' That wasn't good enough, he said. New psychiatric facility near CSN campus in Las Vegas priced at $420 million 'There was an incident last year. It literally took less than five minutes for an offender to break out of one of the cages and there was a homicide as a result of that,' Dzurenda said. The word 'cage' didn't sit well with Democratic Sen. Melanie Scheible. Dzurenda said 'enclosures' is the preferred term, and he proceeded to describe the difference between regular fences and the 'expanded steel enclosures' or 'recreation enclosures' that NDOC intends to use to get inmates out of their cells. He said the holes are smaller, but big enough for guards to see what's going on inside. The cost for each prison: $6,148,299 — High Desert State Prison $5,724,454 — Lovelock Correctional Center $2,814,398 — Ely State Prison But those aren't nearly the biggest budget items among a list of projects for 2026-27. A total of 10 deferred maintenance projects add up to $35.7 million. Add on another four major projects and the total hits $138.4 million. (See second image in slideshow above.) The biggest item on the list is the replacement of evaporative coolers at 12 buildings at High Desert State Prison, priced at $58.8 million. That would pay for new rooftop coolers and fans. There's also a request for construction of a new culinary facility for the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City, which initially carried a price tag of $25.6 million. That has risen dramatically, now at $41.8 million due to inflation. Officials said the potential effects of tariffs have not been added in. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Yahoo
Nevada prisons director points to 4-mile fence, better staffing; inmate food issues persist
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A high-profile inmate escape, the resignation of the prisons director, and reports that fences, doors and windows were vulnerable. It all added up to a spotlight on the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC) in 2022. NDOC Director James Dzurenda took as 2023 started, his second stint leading the state's prison system (previously, 2016-2019), and told 8 News Now then that the biggest problems boiled down to one thing: staffing. Dzurenda gave Nevada lawmakers an update on Tuesday morning, telling the Assembly Judiciary Committee that construction has started on a new four-mile-long fence around the High Desert State Prison, about 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas on U.S. 95. The new fence extends four feet underground and will shore up security that was scrutinized after convicted killer Porfirio Duarte-Herrera's escape in September 2022. The 'lethal/nonlethal fence' wasn't identified as the reason Duarte-Herrera escaped. In fact, he climbed three fences, including two topped with razor wire, before walking to Las Vegas, eluding capture for five days before he was arrested trying to board a bus for Mexico. But the discovery of holes carved under a fence by water running off the mountains became a focus. 'If you could have the groundhogs and the squirrels get underneath it I'll guarantee you the offenders can, too,' Dzurenda said. 20 inmates have escaped from NDOC custody over last 4 decades In September 2024, NDOC made a major change in where the most dangerous inmates are housed, moving them from Ely State Prison to High Desert. Within the first two weeks, two inmates were stabbed at High Desert. In November, a High Desert inmate was stabbed to death. But Dzurenda said the move came for a good reason: staffing. NDOC couldn't hire enough guards and other personnel so far away from a big city. 'What I found out at the Ely State Prison, which was really the catalyst, was that we had with those vacancy numbers that we were talking about — over 50% — we had very little staff response when an emergency happened,' he said. 'We had three significant back-to-back emergencies that happened at Ely. Staff were already working over 16 hours, going to outside hospital trips at 18 and 20 hours. Should never happen,' he said. While he didn't disclose staffing levels at Ely or Lovelock Correctional Center, where the staffing problems were the worst coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said Southern Nevada prisons are now fully staffed. He said there are 5,000 applications for jobs that are no longer available. That includes NDOC facilities in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Indian Springs, Jean and Pioche in Lincoln County. With the improvements in staffing, NDOC is now starting to make headway on a program that will eventually give inmates access to computer tablets, with the first facility starting on April 1. That will bring opportunities for college courses. It's an example of progress that the public can see, Dzurenda said, and it will help to lower recidivism. He's also big on using more volunteers and community resources, which he called a big change of direction from past NDOC policies. 'Vocational Village,' a HOPE for prisoners program, is giving inmates job training in tech fields, carpentry, welding, plumbing, electric, HVAC and masonry. Inmates have jobs when they leave. The program is farther along in Southern Nevada, and still lacking in Lovelock, Ely and some of the camps around the state, Dzurenda said. But there are still problems to work through in a prison system that had 10,858 inmates (933 women and 9,925 men) at the end of 2024, according to a state document. 'To be honest with you, food in prison is something I had never thought about. I'm ashamed to say I didn't care. I was one of those 'lock 'em up, let 'em eat whatever,' Nancy Farrey said during the public comment section of Tuesday's session. 'But then, my son went to prison,' she said. Her son is in Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City. Food, 'It's the key to good health,' Farrey said. 'It's the key to chronic bad health, too. And it comes with an expensive price tag.' Now she said she views food 'part of the punishment' and she was speaking out to draw attention to the problem. 'Not steak, not lobster, hold the cherries jubilee, but nutritional food in adequate amounts. That is all we're asking for,' Farrey said. Dzurenda said NDOC is aware that some inmates aren't getting enough food. 'We weren't monitoring close enough. So, when you have offenders serving offenders and you're only giving out three-quarters of a spoonful and you're supposed to give out one, that means more food left over for those that are serving, I think was our problem,' he said. Now, NDOC is monitoring the situation. He said inmates can now select their meals, and they can have something removed if they don't like it. The menu follows a 90-day schedule. Lawmakers asked Dzurenda for updates on kitchen commissary issues, including replacement of some ovens. He said NDOC found funding through COVID-era ARPA funding. 'Disturbances usually happen over visiting issues, lockdown issues or food,' Dzurenda said. 'Very significant problems we could have if we don't address this, and we're finally addressing it in the state.' He said before he returned to NDOC, kitchens were regularly failing health inspections. 'Failing' prisons: Nevada prison director returns to fix staffing, re-entry problems Freshman Assemblymember Erica Roth asked about costs that are billed to inmates. 'A lot of families are really struggling right now, and I think a hidden cost that a lot of people don't think about is the cost of communication and commissary with their family members who are incarcerated,' she said. Dzurenda pointed to a problem in how funding for kitchens is structured, saying 49 full-time employee positions are being paid for out of commissary funds. As a result, there have been mark-ups in order to maintain staffing. He also discussed efforts to keep contraband out of prisons. He said past policies actually contributed to gangs' power inside the walls. Policies that counted on addictions disappearing because drugs weren't available only made it worse for inmates. 'They become more desperate, and without treatment they become even more desperate,' he said. He said mail scanners are currently being tested at High Desert State Prison. One of the targets: paper laced with 'K2 spice' a man-made chemical on the paper that causes a high. Dzurenda said overdoses and brain damage have been linked to the drug. NDOC is also using body scanners to detect contraband inside inmates' bodies. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
