Correctional officers are sounding the alarm over belt-tightening in Nevada prisons after an inmate fatally stabbed another inmate in a unit where only one officer was standing guard.

The Nevada Department of Corrections said inmate Thayer Joseph Burton, 27, died last Wednesday at Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City after being stabbed with a prison-made weapon by an unidentified fellow inmate. He died about a half an hour later.

“That particular unit is legislatively approved for two officers that time of the day when this happened,” Eugene Columbus, a retired correctional officer and president of the Nevada Corrections Association, told The Nevada Independent in an interview. “Because of money restraints placed by the governor and politicians downtown, there was only one.”

NDOC spokeswoman Brooke Santina said the staffing levels were appropriate for the type of non-lockdown unit in which the homicide took place.

“The unit where the inmate was stabbed is a general population unit. Staffing levels were appropriate for safety and security in a GP environment,” she said. “At least six officers were available for immediate response. The motivation of the suspect in this case was unpredictable no matter how many officers were in the vicinity.”

Columbus, however, believes higher staffing could have prevented the killing.

“A second officer could have made a big difference in that unit,” he said, adding that single officers can sometimes be responsible for 160 to 190 inmates milling about in general population units. “They could have possibly been more proactive, they could have done more tours, they could have maybe caught more warning signs.”

NDOC said that after Burton was stabbed, he ran toward staff, where the officer in the housing unit immediately called for assistance. The agency says multiple correctional officers and medical staff tried to save his life but he succumbed to his injuries.

“Investigators have identified the suspect,” the agency said in a press release, noting that the person was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder. “The investigation is ongoing and more information will be released as it becomes available.”

Burton had been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the killing of a 53-year-old Ashley Furniture Homestore manager in an attempted robbery in Las Vegas in 2007, when he was 17.

In a subsequent press release, the AFSCME union linked the killing to drastic cuts in overtime hours and prison wardens changing minimum staffing levels. Earlier this year, an audit that found the NDOC was $15 million over budget at about halfway through the fiscal year, largely due to correctional officer overtime pay costs.

This prompted Gov. Brian Sandoval to demand changes, and the department has dramatically reined in overtime in the subsequent months.  In response to the complaints, Sandoval's office initially said he's been checking  in with the agency in his capacity as head of the Nevada Board of Prison Commissioners to ensure that the changes aren't breeding safety concerns.

"Staffing in the unit at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center where the incident occurred last week was at legislatively approved POST standards when the incident occurred," said Sandoval's spokeswoman, Mary-Sarah Kinner. "Moreover, at the last two Board of Prison Commissioners meetings, Governor Sandoval specifically inquired if Department of Corrections employees were at risk as a result of changing staffing needs and was assured by Department Director James Dzurenda that no staff were at risk. The safety and security of both employees and inmates is of the highest priority for the Governor and he will continue to work with the Department to ensure those needs are met."

In a subsequent statement on Monday, however, Sandoval's office indicated they later learned the staffing was lower than legislatively approved levels.

"The Governor's Office was told by Director Dzurenda that staffing in the unit was at legislatively approved standards. We have since been instructed by Director Dzurenda the unit was staffed by one officer, which is minimum staffing level," Kinner said. "Governor Sandoval has repeatedly stated to the Director that he does not want officers or inmates to be placed at risk due to funding and the Director has assured the Governor that no correctional officers, staff or any inmate would be in an unsafe situation due to staffing levels. An investigation is ongoing and the Governor's Office will evaluate the results when complete."

Union leaders say the situation remains dangerous.

“Nevada Department of Corrections has been aware of these conditions for far too long, without taking immediate action to correct them,” said Joe Roberts, a correctional officer and AFSCME chapter president. “We as correction officers come to work each day to serve our community and should not have to fear for our lives. It’s time for NDOC to put the safety and security of correctional officers and support staff first and foremost.”

The union also alleges that dozens of correctional officers in prisons have not completed their full training programs. Santina, however, said that’s nothing new for the department’s on-the-job training arrangement, which takes special precautions with junior officers.

“When we hire new officers, an academy may not be available immediately, so we train them through working on site. The goal of the OJT program is to partner the cadet with an officer they can shadow to learn aspects of the job prior to the academy,” she said. “Cadets are not allowed to run housing units alone nor to work unsupervised with direct inmate contact. If our department doesn't offer employment opportunities we will lose potential officers to other agencies while they are waiting for academy dates. This enables us to be more competitive and responsive to the needs of our employees.”

One working correctional officer at the Carson City prison, who spoke to The Nevada Independent on condition of anonymity because of concerns about retaliation, said one way to reduce the violence is to rebuild housing units that date to the 1960s and replace them with more security-minded structures. The officer also expressed the frustration over current prison policies.

“What I'm scared of is the environment of marginalizing this as the "new normal" and saying, ‘that's just prison.’ This may allow homicide to become the new normal, which is unacceptable,” they said. “Our line staff keep warning administration about how violence is increasing at NNCC, how they tie in to recent decisions, and we keep getting ignored … In order for administration to make changes in our favor, it always has to involve money or someone dying.”

This story was updated at 3:40 p.m. on May 21, 2018 to add comment from Gov. Brian Sandoval's office. Updated again at 9:30 a.m. on May 22, 2018 to add a revised comment from Sandoval, and at 12:20 to detail the discrepancy in the first and second Sandoval comments.