Corrections worker demoted after raising concerns about Southern Nevada prison, lawsuit alleges

An employee at the Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Center in Las Vegas has filed a lawsuit against the Nevada Department of Corrections and its director, claiming she was demoted from her previous position at another Southern Nevada prison because of gender discrimination and harassment.

Karissa Currier, currently a correctional lieutenant at Florence McClure, alleges in an 11-page complaint filed in District Court on Oct. 14 that department officials demoted her from her position of associate warden at Southern Desert Correctional Center in 2023 partly because she voiced her concern about conditions inside the facility.

In the complaint, Currier and her attorney, Las Vegas lawyer Michael Balaban, argue that she was used as a “scapegoat for longstanding operational problems” at the men’s prison in Indian Springs.

Further, they say in the complaint, Currier’s demotion was based on “gender discrimination” because the associate warden of operations at Southern Desert, a man, was not demoted.

The suit lists department director James Dzurenda as a defendant. An email sent to Dzurenda seeking comment for this story was not immediately returned.

Issues on the inside

According to the complaint, Currier came to Southern Desert during the summer of 2021. After arriving, she noticed there was no air conditioning at the prison, which meant temperatures inside the cells were “over 100 degrees.”

Currier also noticed, according to the complaint, that cell doors “didn’t secure, so if an inmate was mad about something, they would kick the door open and they could assault” other inmates.

Within her first two months at the prison, Currier said an inmate “hopped the fence and escaped because the officers weren’t counting” and noted that there was “no hot water or heat” at times during the winter months.

She also noted that there were times when “there was not enough food” for inmates and that staffing levels at the prison were “50 percent below” what they should have been.

About a year into Currier’s time as associate warden at Southern Desert, department deputy director David Tristan told her that the prison was in “disarray,” according to the complaint.

Currier, the complaint notes, was offered a voluntary demotion to the Florence McClure women’s prison, where she had previously served as associate warden.

At first, the complaint said, Currier said she would accept the demotion, but she said Dzurenda later said “they would start investigating and start digging and that they would find something and you don’t want that.”

The complaint alleges that Dzurenda, at one point, said Currier was not “strong enough” to help run Southern Desert. The complaint alleges that Dzurenda, by making the statement, was referring to Currier’s gender.

After the demotion

Following her demotion, Currier said she faced retaliation at Florence McClure, was denied shift requests, and was, at times, spoken to “in a demeaning manner.”

She believes, according to the complaint, that it was part of a larger effort by top department officials to “defame her character.”

The lawsuit says Currier seeks payment for attorney fees, losses in earnings and benefits, and said she’s experienced “mental anguish, humiliation, emotional distress, anxiety, depression, recurring nightmares” and other hardships.

During an unrelated Interim Finance Committee meeting on Oct. 16, Dzurenda addressed staffing concerns at Nevada correctional facilities, telling lawmakers that about 80 percent of department employees now work overtime on a regular basis.

Some lawmakers have voiced concerns about mounting employee overtime costs.

Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BryanHorwath on X.