NDOC receives $500K in state fiscal meeting

State lawmakers on Thursday approved more than a half-million dollars in federal funding for the Nevada Department of Corrections in the wake of an inmate escape and ongoing concerns about staffing shortages.

The Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee agreed to use money from the American Rescue Plan, earmarked for state use in COVID relief, for the prison system with no discussion on the topics.

Nearly $400,000 was allotted for new radio equipment department-wide. Lovelock Correctional Center and the Carlin Conservation Camp are expected to receive a portion of roughly $174,000 for laundry equipment replacements, with about $36,000 of those funds dedicated to the Pioche Conversation Camp to replace culinary equipment, according to a finance committee meeting agenda.

Prison officials have sought funding to mitigate critical staffing levels at the prison in at least one previous meeting with the state, but the topic was not addressed in the committee meeting broadcast online Thursday.

In a meeting this summer with the Joint Interim Standing Committee on Judiciary, acting prison director William Gittere urged the state to consider higher wages to help with an “ongoing and critical staffing shortage” at all NDOC facilities.

Gittere said Monday that eight correctional officers have been placed on paid leave while officials continue to investigate the circumstances of the escape of convicted murderer Porfirio Duarte-Herrera, who broke out of the Southern Desert Correctional Facility in Indian Springs last month.

Duarte-Herrera, 42, was arrested in Las Vegas five days after he escaped. He was found wearing new clothes and a backpack attempting to board a bus to Tijuana, according to authorities. Officials have not elaborated on how he escaped or traveled to Las Vegas.

Duarte-Herrara was convicted in 2010 for his role in a 2007 bombing that killed 27-year-old Willebaldo Dorantes Antonio in the Luxor parking lot.

As of July, 83 percent of Southern Desert’s positions were filled, leaving 50 vacancies. More than 1,700 inmates were housed at the facility. Gittere offered three solutions, one of which involved providing inmates and corrections officers with tablets in an effort to make up for staff shortages. He also suggested using “mobile video devices,” or drones, to oversee prison facilities.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.