The director of Nevada’s Department of Corrections has resigned at the request of Gov. Steve Sisolak, after a four-day breakout by a convicted bombmaker.
The governor’s office stated in a statement Friday that Sisolak “asked and accepted the resignation of Nevada Department of Corrections Director Charles Daniels, effective immediately.” Six other cops have been put on administrative leave.
State prison authorities didn’t discover Duarte-Herrera was missing from the medium-security jail.
There he was serving a life term for a fatal 2007 explosion outside a Las Vegas Strip resort until Tuesday.
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Convicted Nevada bombing suspect apprehended: A fugitive serving a life sentence for the bombing of a Las Vegas hotel has been apprehended.
Sisolak, a Democrat, is standing for re-election against Joe Lombardo, the Clark County sheriff in command of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police.
Lombardo, a Republican, is challenging Sisolak for re-election. The discussion is slated for Sunday in Las Vegas.
At a press conference with an FBI special agent and the commander of the U.S. Marshals Service for Nevada. Lombardo said Thursday that he had a “four-day head start” before anybody realised he was gone.
Lombardo said that the rules and procedures as well as all the shortcomings that happened between Friday and Tuesday must be rectified.
He added that infrastructure difficulties and jail system staffing issues are of considerable concern to me, the law enforcement community as a whole, and society at large.
Since the beginning, the Department of Corrections has been mute on the circumstances surrounding the escape.
Officials refused to attend Thursday’s press conference on the matter.
Friday’s attempts to contact Daniels were initially unsuccessful. Daniels does not have a personal phone number on file.
A request for help from the Associated Press to reach him for comment was not answered right away by a department representative.
Guard Tower Unmanned for Years
The head of a Nevada organisation represents prison officials. Duarte-Herrera constructed a fake and used battery acid to tear down the window frame of his detention cell.
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The guard tower that would have kept an eye on the unit he escaped from was unmanned.
He had been for a number of years, according to Paul Lunkwitz, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Nevada C.O.
Officials were looking into whether he had a co-conspirator.
Sisolak was criticised for how he handled the escape. He said Tuesday afternoon that Duarte-Herrera had escaped on September 23.
The inmate’s absence wasn’t noticed until a head count at the jail on Tuesday. He was ordering an investigation into the case.
Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican who sits on Nevada’s three-member Board of Prison Commissioners alongside Sisolak.
Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford, said she was “outraged” that the department didn’t notify commissioners about the escape, which she learned about from the media.
Resignation Caps Tumultuous Month
The prisons department was given an order to look into the escape by Sisolak “to ensure any failures in procedure are swiftly remedied.”
On Friday, Sisolak said that he is assembling a panel to examine the jail from where Duarte-Herrera escaped and provide suggestions for enhancing security there.
After a month of unrest at Southern Desert Correctional Facility and another facility in Clark County, High Desert State Prison, Daniels has resigned.
A letter sent to Sisolak earlier this month. A group of medical and mental health workers said that the prison director’s behaviour was “becoming more unpredictable, confrontational, and abusive.”
Two prisoners in the same unit at High Desert committed suicide within seven hours of each other.
Daniels “berated the medical and mental health personnel” in meetings, which the letter-writers described as the start of “a witch hunt and blame game.”
It is said that during the second meeting, Daniels arrived an hour late. He “screamed at the workers present in the room and beat his fist on the platform.”
Then he said something to the effect of “no one here is unique, and everyone is replaceable.”
KLAS-TV in Las Vegas was the first to report on these charges, but the Department of Corrections has yet to provide a response.
On Friday, Sisolak said his office will collaborate closely with NDOC. This is “to protect the safety and well-being of both NDOC workers and convicts who are in the state’s care.”
According to the press release, “corrections institutions around the country are suffering from serious staffing shortages. Together, we are working with NDOC to look at creative methods to enhance recruiting at all facilities within this state.”