Letter: inmate treated unfairly

This is about the issue of Nolan Klein and the retaliation toward Mr. Klein from members of the prison staff.

On Oct. 17, 1999, while visiting Mr. Klein, he informed me about what had transpired in his cell a few days earlier. He told me that correctional officers had come into his and his cell mate's cell with the intention of looking for a tattoo gun that his cell mate was supposed to be in possession of.

During their quest to locate said tattoo gun, they went through Mr. Klein's personal belongings which in all aspects should and would be required; however, destroying one's personal property is not allowed.

They went through his clothes and when they were finished with that, they poured some unknown substance on them. They broke his typewriter. They cut approximately 17 feet out of his headphones. All of these items were either issued to Mr. Klein by the Department of Prisons which were bought and paid for by we the taxpayers, or were bought and paid for by Mr. Klein.

Along with the destroying of Mr. Klein's belongings, they went through his legal documents which he will need for his appeal and civil actions.

During their search of Mr. Klein's papers they removed the only exhibits which consisted of photocopies of the front of the envelopes showing that your mailroom had sent the Nevada Supreme Court dismissal back to the Nevada Supreme Court.

The Nevada Supreme Court returned it with the inmate number on it, for which an officer returned it again, stating addressee unknown. Now Mr. Klein has lost all appeal rights because of her lack of all common sense.

During this week, Mr. Klein had been informed that this would not happen again (the mailroom incident).

Also during my conversation with Mr. Klein over the last several months, his concern about retaliation against him by the officers who knew that Mr. Klein was an eyewitness to the shooting in April in which an officer shot an employee from the Department of Motor Vehicles, and since it had just become public information that the DMV employee had filed suit against the officer and the Department of Prisons. Perhaps this is one way your officers send a personal message to those who decide to do the right thing and not take your employees' crap.

On Friday, Nov. 5, 1999, I received a phone call from Mr. Klein. He informed me that he was going to be put into the hole for 10 days for having a tattoo gun in his cell. He was told in person that he should have known what his cell mate was thinking.

Now I have a very big problem with this. Because first of all the tattoo gun was found in the personal belongs of Mr. Klein's cell mate. Mr. Klein's cell mate informed the officers that Mr. Klein knew nothing of that tattoo gun. Yet none of this information provided to the officers was ever put into the report. Why is this?

So what this tells me is that according to your prison policy, every inmate is responsible for his and his cell mate's personal belongings, that every inmate must go through each and every personal item of his cell mate's belongings and look for contraband and report to the prison. And if they do not, they will be punished just as if it were they were the ones who owned the contraband.

By throwing Mr. Klein in the hole for 10 days, you and the State of Nevada are condoning fighting among the inmates. As a taxpayer, I feel I must inform Gov. Guinn about this situation.

On Nov. 13, 1999, while visiting Nolan, I was informed by him and other inmates that they have concerns about the waste of prison property. Their concerns were why does the prison throw away leftover goods, blankets, mattresses, toilet paper, etc., instead of it being reissued? It would amount to several, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars a year that prison staff throws away. Hey, Governor Guinn, why don't you look into this? As a taxpayer, I'd like to know.

TONJA BROWN

Carson City