Carson City supervisors review jail conditions and Saturday's escape

Meeting without any glass dividers crisscrossing the community center board room for the first time this year, the Carson City Board of Supervisors gathered to discuss the city jail’s biannual conditions report.

Assistant Sheriff Jim Primka reported no inmate deaths in the last six months. He was joined by Sheriff Ken Furlong, who reassured the board that the two inmates who escaped last Saturday were outliers, and the jail is taking new precautions to avoid any future incidents. Both inmates have since been apprehended.

“The jail is roughly 25 years old. To our historical knowledge, this is the first time that something like this has happened,” Furlong said.

Saturday evening at about 7 p.m. Matthew Marizza and Cody Abernathy used an unsecured, crash-bar-style emergency exit gate along the back of the jail to flee. The gate itself is in the jail’s loading dock area, exiting to Pratt Avenue.

Furlong described the gate, as well as some of the jail’s fencing, as a “weak link” and a “particular problem” that the jail will be working to address.

“I would just say, discovering weaknesses makes us stronger,” Supervisor Maurice White said.

Mayor Lori Bagwell interjected to add, “Let’s hope we don’t have too many (weaknesses) though.”

As for the board’s other agenda items, of particular interest was disposal of city-owned property. Currently providing office space for the Ron Wood Family Resource Center, Capital City C.I.R.C.L.E.S., RSVP Nevada, and UNR Cooperative Extension, the building at 2621 Northgate Lane faces almost $1.7 million in repairs to remain up-to-code. The board approved a motion to have staff begin due diligence measures to determine the best plan of action, be it auctioning the building or transferring ownership to the nonprofits located there.

During public comment time, Joyce Buckingham, executive director of Ron Wood Family Resource Center, stood to advocate for the latter. She said that Ron Wood is prepared to accept ownership of the building and coordinate with their fellow occupants to make the repairs.

Greg Hall, CEO of the Nevada Humane Society, also stood during public comment to report on the ongoing roaming dog situation in Carson City.
Hall said that roaming dogs have been a city issue since 2019. Despite tribal animal control and the humane society coordinating to capture many of these dogs, the pack has continued to reform over the past two years.
“It’s been a recurring problem, as we’ve seen,” Hall said. “These dogs are very smart. They’re very athletic. They have escape routes.”
As for this year’s pack, two of the three dogs have been captured. Though Hall said he can’t make any predictions for their future, he affirmed that the humane society is a no-kill shelter, and the dogs seem to be socialized.