An Ely State Maximum Security Prison Inmate who accused guards of torturing him after he attacked another guard has been transferred to the relatively benign High Desert Prison in Clark County.
In phone calls and emails, ESP inmate Mike Newcastle informed friends and well wishers that he is now being housed at the High Desert Prison in Clark County.
High Desert State Prison is a Nevada state prison in unincorporated Clark County, Nevada, near Indian Springs. It is the largest institution of the Nevada Department of Corrections and the newest having opened on September 1, 2000.
High Desert is a medium security prison where most inmates have access to basic amenities such as a gym, classrooms and yard time that their fellows at ESP can only dream of.
According to the ESP administration between 75 to 80 percent of Ely Max’s convicts are on permanent lock down 23 hours a day.
ESP is the only maximum security prison in the state and was built to house the worst of the worst inmates, convicts who not only committed the most violent crimes on the outside but also violent crimes while incarcerated.
Serving a 20 years to life sentence for the brutal murder of his wife and convicted this October for battery of a guard, Newcastle would at first glance to be the ideal candidate for permanent residence at Ely.
However the policy of reserving Ely for only the worst of the worst may not be always the practice.
This July at least four ESP inmates belonging to Nazi gang including the gang’s alleged leader were transferred to the medium security Lovelock prison not for becoming non-violent but for agreeing to testify against fellow inmate James Ofeldt in his murder trial this coming February.
James “Big Time” Ofeldt is accused of the May, 2011 murder of cell mate Erik “Bingo” Hauser.
Ofeldt has never denied killing his cell mate but has insisted that he was acting in self defense.
Ofeldt’s attorneys have laid at least a preliminary case of self defense and according to more than a few pieces of correspondence between prison officials and the White Pine County Sheriff’s office they may have enough to raise at least a reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors.
Documents obtained by the Advocate at least suggest that both investigators from the prison and the White Pine County Sheriff’s Department did not dismiss that angle out of hand.
According to those and other documents Ofeldt was fingered for killing to seal a truce between two white prison gangs the Aryan Warriors and the Skin Heads. Ofeldt, the correspondence suggested, was accused of ironically being a snitch by the Aryan Warriors and Houser was picked for the job.
There is however apparently a difference between snitching and snitching.
While Ofeldt was reportedly facing a death sentence for the mere suspicion of ratting out a fellow inmate, those who have agreed to testify against him are allegedly being rewarded with better conditions and even transfers out of Ely Max to much nicer facilities at Lovelock medium security.
According to court documents at least four inmates who were all in Ely Max at the time of the killing and who are listed as witnesses for the prosecution in the case all four have since been transferred to the medium security prison in Lovelock. One of those four, whose names have not been released, is described as the leader of the prison gang who put the contract out on Ofeldt.
So why was Newcastle also rewarded? According to friends of the inmate the reason may have been the unwanted publicity over the so called torture and the video of a bound Newcastle being manhandled by prison guards shown during his trial.
That is exactly the reason and a smart move on the part of ESP. I would think they would certainly want to deflect the attention the case was getting. Considering the lack of control on the part of a few guards, who have not been held accountable for their actions, it was only a matter of time before prison advocates would perhaps legally become involved. Call it reward or a brush under the rug …either way I bet they are happy he has transfered.