LAS VEGAS (KSNV MyNews3) – An emergency appeal with the Nevada Supreme Court to delay Thursday’s coroner’s inquest process has been granted.

A three-judge panel ruled that the inquest involving Eduardo Lopez-Hernandez is stayed until at least May 11.

The police union said it believes new inquest guidelines and parameters are unconstitutional because an ombudsman is provided to the deceased's family. The union says this makes the process adversarial...

CARSON CITY – The director of the state Department of Corrections is taking steps to hire more officers in the aftermath of a decision by the state Prison Board on Tuesday to delay closure of the aging Nevada State Prison in Carson City.

Director Howard Skolnik said he will ask the state Board of Examiners next month to exempt correctional officers at prisons from an unpaid one-day-a-month furlough.

On Wednesday, he set in motion efforts to hire 50 more officers at the Carson City prison and the prison in Lovelock...

The head of Nevada's prison system Tuesday said his fears of requiring correctional staff to take furloughs were exacerbated by last month's prison riot in Southern California.

Howard Skolnik reiterated to the state Board of Examiners that he doesn't believe furloughs at state correctional institutions can be safely implemented.

In August, 175 inmates were injured during a riot at the California Institution for Men in Chino, where seven of eight housing units were left uninhabitable.

"On the day they had their incident, approximately 15 percent of their officers were on furlough," Skolnik said. "I personally don't believe that having those officers present would have stopped that incident from taking place, but I think 15 more staff could have significantly reduced the time and amount of damage that was done…"

Nevada prison officials have confiscated hundreds of portable typewriters from inmates who have used them for decades to tap out legal briefs to appeal their convictions, arguing parts of the machines could be converted into weapons.

The Department of Corrections cited two incidents of violence in recently changing the policy — one when an inmate died and another when a guard was threatened.

Inmates have filed a growing pile of lawsuits protesting the new rule, saying officials are using the security argument as an excuse to try to slow their legal complaints about overcrowded prisons and difficult living conditions…

Inmates at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City began moving into a 240-bed modular housing unit Monday as part of the state's efforts to ease crowding in the bulging prison population.

The move coincides with the release of an unprecedented national report last week from the Pew Center on the States showing that one out of every 99.1 American adults is in jail or prison, the highest ratio of any country in the world.

"We're at capacity and more," said Greg Smith, a planning specialist with the state Department of Corrections. "We've had to utilize some public areas such as classrooms and foyers (within prisons) for housing. We are very much looking forward to the new buildings."

Inmates at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City will begin moving into a 240-bed modular housing unit Monday as part of the state's efforts to ease crowding in the bulging prison population, officials said Thursday.

The move coincides with the release of an unprecedented national report from the Pew Center on the States showing that one out of every 99.1 American adults is in jail or prison, the highest ratio of any country in the world. "We're at capacity and more," said Greg Smith, a planning specialist with the state Department of Corrections. "We've had to utilize some public areas such as classrooms and foyers (within prisons) for housing. We are very much looking forward to the new buildings."

Nevada's penal system, a $296 million annual institution, is designed to handle 12,753 inmates, Smith said. It currently holds 12,959, or roughly one of every 200 state residents, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Nevada Department of Corrections.