Public’s safety at risk: audit

Auditors found that “public safety is at risk” when parolees are not supervised properly by Parole and Probation officers. They also noted an audit performed in 1999 found similar problems with the agency.

Parole and Probation chief John Gonska acknowledged the 21 problems uncovered by the audit are accurate and vowed to correct them as quickly as possible.

After intense questioning Friday by state Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, Gonska said the “majority” of the problems would not exist if he could fill the 50 vacancies in his agency.

“We need more people, trust me,” Gonska said. “But I’m a realist.”

Gov. Jim Gibbons placed a hiring freeze on the division and other state agencies in the fall in response to the state’s $565 million revenue shortfall.

Coffin said that in situations where the public safety is in jeopardy, job vacancies must be filled.

“This is a situation where you have to go to the governor and say we need these people,” he said.

The senator complained that too many of Gibbons’ appointees just go along with the governor’s wishes and lack the “political will” to tell him the truth even in cases where the public safety is jeopardized.

“This borders on criminal behavior,” he said.

Coffin said the governor should dip into the state’s rainy day fund and find the revenue to hire needed Parole and Probation employees.

Gibbons has announced he intends to ask the 2009 Legislature to let him use $232 million of the state’s $267 million rainy day fund to cover some of the current revenue shortfall.

While not as strident in her criticism as Coffin, Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, also said she was alarmed by the audit’s findings.

“This is a horrible audit,” she told Gonska.

In particular, she was concerned that the agency has not been securing DNA samples from offenders.

Auditors studied 30 cases where judges ordered the agency to do the DNA testing. They found that in 11 cases no DNA was taken from parolees, and in 13 cases the DNA was taken, but results were not entered into an inventory system that could be used by police.

Leslie said law enforcement authorities in Reno have been trying to locate the serial rapist who killed 19-year-old college student Brianna Denison in January through his DNA.

Gonska said his agency has been working with Washoe County authorities on the Denison case.

He said the office might be low on staff, but it does have sufficient employees to monitor high-risk parolees.

“You have my commitment,” Gonska said. “We will apply staff to high-risk offenders.”

The audit found other deficiencies. It determined that the agency:

• Failed 31 percent of the time to meet a requirement that officers meet twice a month with high-risk and sex offenders.

• Failed in 21 of 27 cases to meet with employers of sex offenders within the required two days. When employers are not notified, auditors said there is an increased risk to the community and potential state liability.

• Failed to keep track of many parolees who have disappeared. In one case, the agency did not complete the required paperwork for 331 days for a parolee who was no longer living at a specific address. In 15 of 20 cases, violations were not prepared within 90 days of the last contact with the parolees and information was not placed into a national database.

• Failed to place 165 sex offenders into required tier levels that reflect their chances of repeating crimes.

• Failed to keep control over who can access agency computers. More than 350 users were not current employees.

• Failed to make restitution payments to crime victims in a timely manner. About $233,000 remains in an account from offenders who have been discharged for more than three years and little searching is done to obtain addresses of victims.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or (775) 687-3901.