State agency buys hand sanitizer made by prison inmates

The Department of Public Safety has purchased 3,700 bottles of the hand sanitizer that inmates are producing inside a Carson City prison amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Nevada Department of Corrections announced April 10 that inmates at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center had begun producing hand sanitizer to be sent to medical facilities, law enforcement agencies and prison facilities.

In an emailed statement Friday, Corrections Department spokesman Scott Kelley said the state Department of Public Safety has purchased “thousands of bottles” to be distributed to the Nevada Highway Patrol and its other divisions.

Kelley did not specify if other public agencies had purchased the hand sanitizer.

The Department of Public Safety oversees nine divisions and four offices, according to its website. Kelley said the hand sanitizer purchased by the Department of Public Safety will be distributed to other employees including fire service officials and personnel from the Parole and Probation Division.

“(The Department of Corrections) is working fast to get hand sanitizer out into the field and onto the hands of corrections, medical, and law enforcement personnel who most need it,” he said, adding that paperwork involved in the transactions was not available on Friday.

It remained unclear Friday how much the hand sanitizer cost for the agencies.

While the inmates are producing hand sanitizer for the Department of Corrections to sell, alcohol-based hand sanitizer is considered contraband for those incarcerated. Kelley said that prison staff are now distributing “a few pumps of hand sanitizer” to inmates “several times a day.”

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people use hand sanitizer that is at least 60 percent alcohol when soap and water is not available. As of Friday, six Department of Corrections staff members had tested positive for the virus, but no inmates, according to state data.

The Department of Corrections did give some inmates hand sanitizer on a trial basis last week, but the bottles were later confiscated after two inmates got sick from “drinking the hand sanitizer,” Kelley said.

He declined to name the facility where those two inmates are incarcerated due to “safety and security reasons.”

Nevada Highway Patrol spokesman Travis Smaka said Thursday that the Department of Public Safety ordered 3,700 10-ounce bottles and 50 one-gallon refill containers. Of those, the Highway Patrol will be receiving 1,500 10-ounce bottles and eight refill containers.

Smaka directed a Review-Journal reporter to the Department of Corrections for “cost information” about the purchase.

‘Tens of thousands of bottles’

Silver State Industries, which runs other job programs for inmates, is operating the hand sanitizer manufacturing, the Department of Corrections has said.

“Production amount varies every day, as the number of offenders who work that day and the hours they work changes,” Kelley said in an emailed statement. “Tens of thousands of bottles in 2 ounce, 10 ounce, and one-gallon sizes have been produced.”

The Metropolitan Police Department, Henderson Police Department, North Las Vegas Police Department, as well as the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas, all told the Review-Journal they had not ordered any of the hand sanitizer produced in the prison. The FBI’s field office in Las Vegas and the Drug Enforcement Administration’s office in Reno and Las Vegas also stated they had not received any.

Clark County spokesman Erik Pappa said Friday that the county had received a sample of the hand sanitizer from Silver State Industries and that “there is a cost associated with it.” As of Friday the county had not ordered any of the hand sanitizer, and Pappa did not say what the cost for the order would be.

Inmates began producing the hand sanitizer on April 4, Kelley said. Twelve to 15 inmates who were part of the Silver State Industries’ furniture, print and woodworking shops had volunteered to make the hand sanitizer.

The inmates will be paid a stipend of about $160 every two weeks to make the hand sanitizer, Kelley said. He said that rate is “a similar wage” to other jobs through Silver State Industries.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-2040. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.