Nevada’s prison boss working to end discrimination against inmates with HIV, disabilities

CARSON CITY — Nevada’s prison boss assured the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday that the state is taking immediate steps to end discriminatory housing and work assignments of inmates who have HIV or other disabilities.

Corrections Department Director James Dzurenda told federal lawyers the agency is “continuing to review and revise policies, procedures and practices” to reach compliance with the Justice Department’s remedial recommendations.

The Justice Department, in a letter sent June 20, said the agency responsible for 13,500 violated the Americans with Disability Act by housing inmates with HIV separately from other prisoners and denying them equal employment opportunities.

The federal agency said the Nevada prison system’s “discriminatory practices have resulted in the illegal segregation and stigmatization of inmates with HIV and the incarceration of inmates with disabilities for longer periods, in more restrictive settings, than inmates without disabilities.”

The federal review was launched following complaints from two HIV-positive inmates at High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs north of Las Vegas.

The Justice Department warned Nevada could be sued if it fails to comply with the act.

In his response, Dzurenda, who assumed the director’s job in April, said he immediately issued an order prohibiting medical information regarding an inmate’s HIV status from being disclosed to unauthorized personnel. Such information will be available only to medical staff.

“Only limited medical personnel will have access to the identities of HIV-positive inmates and will keep this information in a secured area,” the department said in a statement. Identities of a positive inmate will only be revealed to an employee if they are exposed to that inmate’s bodily fluids.

Dzurenda said he has requested a bill draft for the 2017 Legislature to change a state law that now requires the results of an inmate’s HIV test to be disclosed to employees involved with the offender.

He also said an inmate’s HIV status won’t be used to decide housing or prison work assignments, and inmate files are being revised to eliminate coding identifying an inmate as HIV positive.

Prison administration is also designing a pamphlet to inform inmates about the policy and educate them about the disease, how it’s transmitted and how to avoid contracting it.

Existing Corrections Department regulations say inmates with HIV can be placed in single cells or “dormitory-type housing” with other inmates but cannot be in double-occupancy cells with inmates who don’t have HIV.

“As a result of the NDOC’s unnecessary segregation policy, the NDOC has exposed inmates with HIV to potential harm from inmates who may hold unfounded fears of, or prejudices against, those with HIV,” Justice Department lawyers wrote.

Contact Sandra Chereb at schereb@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3821. Find @SandraChereb on Twitter.