High Desert prison guards may start using rubber shotgun rounds

Guards at High Desert State Prison may start using nonlethal, rubber shotgun rounds.

Use of force against inmates came under public scrutiny in March after the Las Vegas Review-Journal uncovered that 28-year-old Carlos Perez had been shot to death at High Desert.

The proposal came up Tuesday during a Board of State Prison Commissioners meeting in Carson City that was teleconferenced to Las Vegas.

Gov. Brian Sandoval joined first-time board members Attorney General Adam Laxalt and Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske to examine the prison system’s use of force, budget and staffing. The Department of Corrections also briefed the board on the state’s compliance with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act and discussed changes to prison regulations.

When Sandoval asked if current use of force policies are insufficient, corrections administrators said courts have upheld them since the 1980s.

“Quite frankly, every inmate knows what we’re doing with our use of force policies,” corrections Director Greg Cox said.

Perez’s November shooting death was not mentioned specifically during the meeting, but corrections officials said they were looking into adding new nonlethal measures at High Desert. The state’s largest prison houses the most gang members, corrections administrators said, and has the most unstable population.

The board voted unanimously to give the department 120 days to complete a study of officers’ use of force.

E.K. McDaniel, a corrections department deputy director, said administration is already gathering records necessary for the study, which is expected to cover the past three years and cost at least $20,000. Cegavske insisted the study also include an examination of corrections officers’ training.

And while administrators agreed that training should be an important part of the study, they were quick to defend the department’s current regimen, which includes about eight weeks of teaching.

“We actually have more weapons training than other states,” McDaniel said.

Use of force was the most controversial topic discussed at the meeting, but the committee spent more time talking about next year’s budget.

Deputy Director Scott Sisco outlined many of the department’s expenditures, emphasizing the need to take care of aging prison facilities and maintain the closed Southern Nevada Correctional Center in Jean.

Corrections officials pointed out that Nevada is consistently among the fastest growing states and the Legislature considered 31 bills that could impact the prison population. If the department needed to reopen the Southern Nevada Correctional Center to accommodate an increase in prisoners, it would cost the state about $10 million, Sisco said.

Sisco also spoke at length about the department’s employee issues. An independent staffing study completed last year recommended the addition of 100 new employees over the next two years. The department also wants to do away with furloughs imposed by the state at the start of the recession, which would add six more work days per year, per employee.

Sisco said about 89 percent of the department’s budget, estimated at $259,477,637 for fiscal year 2016, comes from the state’s general fund. On average the department expects to spend an average of $56.72 per day to house inmates.

The board also heard from Pamela Del Porto, corrections inspector general, about the state’s continuing efforts to comply with the Prison Rape Elimination Act. Last year six prison facilities were audited and found to be fully compliant, including the prison Porto said has most of the youthful prisoners, Lovelock Correctional Center. Juvenile inmates have a high risk of being sexually assaulted and must be separated from adults so they can’t see or hear them.

Nevada is ahead of many other states in rape elimination compliance. High Desert was audited and deemed fully compliant in January, Porto said.

“It’s refreshing to hear we’re good at things in Nevada,” Cegavske said.

Four more rape elimination audits are scheduled for this summer, as is the next board of prisons meeting.

Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Find him on Twitter: @WesJuhl.