LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Nevada Department of Corrections is looking at ways to correct a major budget shortfall.
On Thursday, James Dzurenda, the NDOC Director told the state Interim Finance Committee the agency was expecting to face a $53 million shortfall this fiscal year and it's an issue that has been going on for years.
What is causing the shortfall?
Dzurenda said the main thing contributing to the shortfall is officers receiving more overtime while the NDOC addresses staffing issues.
"When I first came to the agency, we were at a 36% vacancy rate statewide. When I look at that and tell agencies from other states, they're shocked we were able to do [operations] without any more lives getting taken because it is extremely dangerous," Dzurenda told committee members. "Our vacancies have decreased. We are at 16% with corrections officers, uniformed employees. We have a current academy class going on right now. We have 80 in our academy. After they graduate, and that's if we lose no employees to termination, retirement, or resigning, we'll be at 11% after they graduate."
But while future officers go through school, others are having to fill the gaps leading to unbudgeted overtime.
"When you talk about the training academy, the training academy only has seven positions that are authorized under our budget to run the academy. However, [that] is not going to cover the amount of training we do," Dzurenda explained. "Just in 2024, we had to borrow 243 officers offline to come and assist with academy training, which came to about $1,083,000. When you pull staff out of a facility to do things like this, we have to pay overtime in the positions where they came from. That's all unbudgeted."
WATCH FULL HEARING: NDOC officials discuss budget shortfall
Other examples of tasks of officers doing tasks overtime include transporting people who committed crimes in Nevada but fled to other states, taking inmates to medical appointments, monitoring prison visits, and facilitating educational programming in prisons.
When we talk about overtime, it isn't one or two hours a week. Dzurenda said some officers were working 16-hour days regularly.
"There was one incident that I can just pick off the top of my head. In August of 2024, we had three separate homicides in a short period at Ely State Prison," Dzurenda said. "That day, every single officer worked more than 16 hours straight, except for eight of them. That's how short we were."
He added that a collective bargaining agreement with the union is also giving corrections officers two additional days off every year.
"When you're talking about 1,870 officers getting two additional days off that are unbudgeted, you pull those people out and those people don't work. Where does it go? It goes into overtime in these positions," Dzurenda told lawmakers. "When I looked at what that meant, those two additional days off for every officer is $1,981,000 that is unbudgeted to corrections that we pay in overtime to cover it."
What does this mean for inmates and/or their families and friends?
One cut will be to educational programs.
"For program cuts, what we've done is we have traditionally had in-person programs for offenders," said Jeremy Bean, Warden of High Desert State Prison. "Because we have 20 housing units at my facility alone, it requires additional staff to stand in with the programming officers to foster those programs. We have transitioned all of those to distance education-type of environment and that's done through main-in packets through the interim mail service to reallocate those staff members and reduce overtime."
Another cut means less time visiting with incarcerated loved ones.
"We've also reduced our visiting schedules to every other week. We're on a 50/50 schedule so that we're only providing in-person visits to the population every two weeks," Bean explained. "Then, those staff members assigned to the visiting positions can be rolled back into the staff to reduce overtime further."
It's something that committee members seemed disappointed to hear.
"So instead of asking for additional staffing, we're going to cut visitation and educational programs, which actually make those prisons safer for your officers and safer for the people that are incarcerated," Sen. Rochelle Nguyen questioned.
"That's correct," Dzurenda replied. "We monitor tension and stress in the units and when it feels like it's hitting at a point, we open everything."
How did we get here?
According to Dzurenda, the budget issue has been an ongoing problem for years and it's due to job postings not being fully evaluated by the legislature.
He explained that post charts show how many approved positions the department has and what those posts are, in terms of classification. However, the legislature has to approve those positions for budget purposes.
That being said, Dzurenda added a staffing analysis, which could evaluate what positions are and aren't needed in the Department of Corrections, hasn't been addressed in over a decade.
"In 2011, Greg Cox, the director at the time, was told that since [a staffing study] was not approved from the legislature, they weren't accepting the study as an analysis," Dzurenda said. "They said it wouldn't be impartial. Those post charts were never submitted and we continue with the post charts prior to 2011."
So what can be done?
Corrections officials requested staffing studies in the past and lawmakers passed two bills, Assembly Bill 462 in 2021 and Assembly Bill 507 in 2023, to finance the studies.
A staffing analysis is currently underway but won't be completed until June 30, 2025, at the earliest. That's after the current legislative session is expected to end.
Assemblymember Howard Watts voiced many of the committee members' frustrations that they can't find a way to fix this issue before then.
"When we fund a staffing study, we expect that in two years, when we come back in session, that we're going to have results from that that will inform our budgeting for the next two years," Watts said. "We're going to have to wait another two years before we can see updated post charts and updated budget mechanics to reflect a need that has been communicated to us and we have been working to communicate on our side for at least four years."
Dzurenda said he is just as frustrated and said the results of that study, when completed, will be "devastating."
"I believe you're going to see, not that $60 million short like I've said," Dzurenda told lawmakers. "It's going to be more than $100 million."
As for the current state budget that is being proposed, lawmakers are going to have to find a way to meet NDOC's budget shortfall before the next fiscal year begins on July 1.