Nevada's Prisons in Crisis: A New ACLU-NV Report

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada on March 3, 2011, relased a report detailing how inadequate funding for prisons, and locking up too many citizens for too long, has resulted in prison conditions that violate the Nevada Department of Corrections’ own policies, as well as state, federal, and international human rights law.

The report, “Not Fit for Human Consumption or Habitation: Nevada’s Prisons in Crisis” by former ACLU of Nevada Prisoner Rights Fellow Rebecca Paddock, explains how, as a result of overcrowding, understaffing, and underfunding, Nevada is increasingly failing to meet even the most basic human needs of inmates in the state’s eight prisons. Nearly all prison facilities in Nevada are running over capacity and have insufficient funds to run them.  

The report details problems with prison food in a sanitary manner; inmates not being given proper supplies to keep cells, showers, toilets and common areas clean; medical areas not being properly sanitized; inadequate medical, mental health, and dental care; inadequate exercise opportunities; inadequately nutritious food; lack of accommodations for disable inmates; shackling of pregnant inmates; and more. In each area, the report ties these problems to NDOC policies, Nevada statutes, Eighth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution, and/or international human rights law.

Read the report's policy recommondations and find out what you can do to help.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

- TAKE ACTION: Find out how you can help!
- Download the entire report: "Not Fit for Human Consumption or Habitation: Nevada's Prisons in Crisis"
- Download a summary of the report
- ACLU of Nevada Press Release
- ACLU Releases Report on Nevada Prisons, KLAS-TV, Las Vegas, 3/3/2011
- ACLU criticizes Nevada's prisons in report, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 3/5/2011