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Forget safety, corrections officers told, just fake it

There are rules, and then there’s reality. And the reality is, Nevada’s corrections officers are regularly ordered to do more with less.

In recent weeks I’ve interviewed nearly two dozen veteran officers who have offered their experiences inside the system at High Desert State Prison and Southern Desert Correctional Center outside Indian Springs. The prisons house a wide range of offenders, and corrections officers and related staff keep the facilities running despite what some may call a dangerous lack of trained personnel.

Short staffing and inexperienced employees can make for a frustrating working atmosphere in any job setting, but when it happens in Nevada’s prisons, it invites disaster. They risked their jobs by stepping forward and spoke with the condition that I keep their identities anonymous.

Trouble is, their complaints rarely translate into concern at the state Legislature, which traditionally hasn’t treated the Department of Corrections with much respect — unless it was time to approve a deal for new prison construction to an out-of-state contractor.

And if they grouse that they’re still on the furlough system left over from the recession, there isn’t much stirring among the lawmakers.

But if something goes wrong inside those dangerous walls, as it is bound to do, it’s the officers whose safety and livelihoods are at risk.

At Southern Desert, officers say short staffing even at dangerous levels is the norm. They’re discouraged from complaining about it, they say, and it does little good to remind supervisors of the existence of the Nevada Department of Corrections Operational Procedure guidelines, which are pretty specific.

Instead, officers are regularly told to do more with less and fake it until they make it. Use available personnel — even when they’re uncertified and even almost completely untrained recruits. This, they’re told, is the reality of taking care of business.

If worker safety is of the highest priority, it doesn’t exactly show in some of the memos I’ve obtained in an effort to get at the facts. For their part, top- tier Department of Corrections officials have consistently declined to comment on the workers’ safety concerns.

Back in June at Southern Desert, Associate Warden Minor Adams reminded the officers not to sweat their staffing concerns. In a memo I’ve obtained, inmate grievances were on Adams’ mind.

“Grievances again are surfacing about U8 (Unit 8) not getting tier, or gym, or other units not getting gym,” Adams wrote. “Look at your schedules and rosters, staff shortage is not an excuse to continually shut down the same damn thing. If you got two officers in 8 do a modified tier schedule, 10 rooms out at a time, etc., no rotunda access, etc. If the coach is here, open the frigg’n gym. We don’t close laundry down just because the Officer is not there, why would you close the gym? Exercise your authority and common sense.”

What if common sense indicated there was a much higher likelihood of trouble breaking out in the gym than in the laundry?

Adams offered that, under the rules, “minimum staffing is important, but unless we are at emergency staffing we need to do our best to improvise and keep operations running, modified if not completely normal.”

Then came more reality from management.

“If we wind up in a lawsuit, judge/jury is not going to listen to short staff, unless we can prove we did all that we could to make it happen up until we actually had to secure the entire yard. Get creative, keep it as safe as possible, but do what we need. Suggestions, aside from my suicide, are welcome.”

At least Associate Warden Adams still has a sense of humor.

The officers charged with managing more than 200 inmates apiece without trained backup and the sufficient tools to do their job are finding it harder to keep smiling.

John L. Smith’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Email him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. Find him on Twitter: @jlnevadasmith

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