Prisons need more staff to control inmates

Director of Corrections Glen Whorton has asked the governor and budget office to increase his staff of correctional officers by 264 - a jump of nearly 20 percent from the current staff of 1,362.

Whorton said the recommendation would cost an estimated $27.5 million over the next two years.

He made the statement in a response to an executive branch audit that recommended studying and possibly changing the formula used to calculate staffing levels in the Department of Corrections.

While the inmate population grew 15 percent in the past four years, the number of crimes reported within the prison system is up 113 percent.

Whorton said part of the increase in crime within the system is due to better reporting and a more-violent population.

Nevada has, by percentage, one of the nation's fastest-growing inmate populations and one of the worst inmate-to-staff ratios.

"Then on top of that, if we're only manning those posts 83 percent of the time, that makes it worse," he said.

"We have managed to do that without major incidents," he said. But he said his guards are "rightfully concerned" that the present situation can't continue indefinitely.

In his budget, Whorton said he recommended changing the so-called "relief factor" that calculates how many employees are actually needed to fully staff each approved guard post. Counting days off, average annual sick leave, training and other factors, the state has been using 1.6 as the number of officers it actually takes to man each post 24/7.

But auditors calculated that, using actual days off and other data for the year ended in March, the prison system should be using 1.82 as its relief factor.

Using 1.82 to calculate the staff needed at Nevada's prisons results in the requested 264 additional positions.

"I acknowledge that it's a serious security concern for the safety of inmates and staff, and it's a serious concern for the people interested in the fiscal aspect," said Whorton.

He said the governor and Legislature must balance security with the cost because even a seemingly small change in the factor is very expensive.

Gov. Kenny Guinn, chairman of the audit committee, said the cost would be on top of the $50 million he estimates the state will have to add to the prison system budgets to operate new prisons in the next biennium.

• Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.