The budget hole means that the Legislature will now have to come up with enough money to fix the shortfall in just three months.

In interviews with more than 30 current and former state employees and a review of state policies, The Nevada Independent found there are limited mechanisms in place to discipline higher-level state employees.

At the meeting, prison officials provided results from a dietary inspection and details about new reentry programs and food menus that Dzurenda said will revert to the portions that were available before 2019, a change he said was prompted after “one complaint from one offender — to Health and Human Services.”

SB307 outlines new regulations for the use of solitary confinement that are more stringent and individualized than a similar 2017 bill and mandates annual NDOC reports.

Jodi Hocking, founder of the nonprofit inmate advocacy group Return Strong, helped present a bill that would create an Office of the Ombudsman — impartial and independent of the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC) — that would manage grievances filed by prisoners that adversely affect the health, safety, welfare and rights of those in custody. The office would be under the administration of the attorney general. 

The agency’s plan is to reduce the number of operating conservation camps to six for the upcoming two-year budget cycle, closing the camps operating in Ely, Tonopah and Hawthorne.

The Nevada prison system, facing an anticipated increase in the inmate population and dealing with aging infrastructure, is confronting a severe staffing shortage that presents a danger to guards, prisoners and the community, its new director told lawmakers. 

In 2023, in spite of Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s fierce criticism of the Steve Sisolak administration on the campaign trail, he kept even more. Ten out of the 17 cabinet appointments announced by Lombardo Friday were Sisolak holdovers

Dzurenda was appointed to lead the agency by former Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval in May 2016, and led until his departure under Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak in August, 2019. 

In a wide-ranging interview with The Nevada Independent on Wednesday in Carson City, Sisolak also expressed skepticism about Medicare for all proposals championed by progressives because of their potential consequences to desirable union health plans. He also confirmed that he would not endorse a presidential candidate before the state’s February caucus.

More recently, he held a senior role at the New York City Department of Corrections, and earlier this year he was named deputy commissioner of operations for the Alabama Department of Corrections — a prison system recognized by the Department of Justice as one of the worst in the country for homicide, suicide and rape.

Those findings and other potential improvements on mental health services in the state prison system were released publicly on Thursday as part of an audit report presented to the Executive Branch Audit Committee (composed of the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer and controller).

“It never occurred to me to quit,” said Gedney. “And then I also really became aware of the abuses of power in a prison, and I’ve always wanted to protect people from abuses of power and that can be inmates on inmates, officers, and administration on inmates abusing their power, and all that you need there is a couple of bad apples and you can get an ugly sort of situation.”

“Often the argument for solitary is for safety, right? It's to keep the prison safer, to keep society safer,” said Elena Vanko, one of the Vera Institute researchers who worked on the Nevada report. “But there really isn't the evidence to support that solitary ... changes people's behavior or deters misbehavior.”

Nevada’s system of getting packages to prisoners hasn’t always worked smoothly. Prisons had been using a system where inmates walked up to a retail store window and picked up items. But that involved inmates leaving their housing units and standing in line for long periods of time, often in the elements, and alongside rivals who wanted to steal their new stuff.

The North Las Vegas City Council on Tuesday voted, as part of its consent agenda, to allow City Manager Ryann Juden to develop a contract with Dzurenda’s newly formed consulting company to the tune of $150,000. 

The case stems from a 2016 lawsuit brought by inmate Benjamin Espinosa against Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC) Director James Dzurenda, a prison chaplain, and the department’s Religious Review Team. The lawsuit alleged that Espinosa’s constitutional rights are being denied because NDOC failed to offer Humanists the same benefits as other faith groups.

During the first week of operation, 16 inmates at High Desert State Prison sorted, cleaned, and repackaged 2,400 hangers, earning a wage based on productivity. Production is eventually expected to ramp up to 9,000 hangers per week. 

In dismissing the original complaint in December 2017, Nevada-based federal Judge Robert C. Jones wrote that Espinosa had failed to say how his Humanist beliefs were distinct from secular moral philosophy to the point that they would qualify as a religion.

Although NDOC spokeswoman Brooke Santina couldn’t provide exact figures on how many inmates had been released with no ID, the agency releases about 6,200 people a year, so Dzurenda’s estimate of 50 percent would mean more than 3,000 inmates are leaving without one each year.