Under the newly-installed Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, a former head of the Nevada state prisons who left the role in 2019 is taking up the position once again.
The state’s Department of Corrections was overseen for three years by Republican Brian Sandoval, who was the governor at the time. Under Democrat Governor Steve Sisolak, he announced his resignation in July 2019.
Dzurenda’s return to lead the department was announced on Friday by Ben Kieckhefer, Lombardo’s chief of staff. He will begin on Monday, according to Elizabeth Ray, a Lombardo communications assistant.
Nevada state prisons have been in trouble lately because of violence between inmates, a lack of staff, the escape of a man convicted of a 2007 bombing in a parking structure at a Las Vegas Strip casino, and the resignation of the prisons head after almost three years on the job.
William Gittere, acting director after Charles Daniels’ departure, will be replaced by Dzurenda.
Gittere ordered the closure of one state prison in Carson City in November as a safety, staffing, and financial efficiency measure. Administrators would be able to increase staffing at other locations, reduce overtime and department operational costs by nearly $14 million annually, according to him.
To succeed Sisolak, who served a single term, Lombardo, a Republican and former Clark County sheriff who is currently the commander of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, was chosen in November. Lombardo took the oath of office on Monday and was inaugurated on Tuesday.
Dzurenda worked as the sheriff of Nassau County on Long Island in New York and as a consultant for the North Las Vegas jails department after leaving his post as the state’s prisons chief.
Nearly 10,000 prisoners and 2,850 staff members work for the Nevada Department of Corrections in seven institutions, nine conservation camps, and two transitional housing facilities.
