Prison guard attacked by inmate

Union officials said Tuesday a lack of staff at Northern Nevada Correctional Center in South Carson City contributed to an attack by an inmate on a correctional officer.

Senior Correctional Officer Eugene Murguia suffered a cut lip, loosened teeth and bruises in the Friday attack but was back at work the next day.

Gene Columbus, president of the Nevada Corrections Association, said Murguia was alone in a prison unit with 163 inmates when he was attacked. A second officer normally with him had been pulled off to help cover lunch for the majority of inmates in the prison, Columbus said.

He said staffing is too thin and that prison officials are forced to let staffing fall below where officers are safe before they can justify calling in more people.

Columbus said the problem needs to be taken to the 2005 Legislature.

"The time is now for the Legislature to act on this," he said. "We can't continue to draw that line between money and the security of prisons."

Prisons spokesman Glen Whorton agreed the prison system needs to have more officers on duty but said that wasn't why Murguia was alone.

"This happened during the noon hour during feeding, and for 20 years we have taken one correctional officer from the unit to support feeding," he said.

"I'm absolutely in agreement with him in trying to ensure we have adequate staff. Gene is correct when he talks about that. But that wasn't what happened here."

He said staffing levels are controlled at NNCC by a consent agreement with the federal government and, if the institution population passes a certain level, the state is required to bring on a third officer.

Whorton said the Department of Corrections plans to ask the Legislature to fix the situation by eliminating "vacancy savings" in its budget. All state agencies are given a personnel budget which assumes a certain percentage of the positions will be vacant because of turnover. Department heads are ordered to turn that percentage back each fiscal year as a reversion to the general fund.

"We're going to ask that percentage not be there so that when we are approved for certain staffing levels, we can have that number of staff available," he said.

Whorton also said the case will be turned over to the Attorney General's Office for prosecution. Assaulting a correctional officer by an inmate is a felony. The inmate was not identified.

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