Prison director defends site for women’s facility

Monday, Oct. 14, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A $27 million women's prison to be built and operated by a private company will be in an environmentally sound location in North Las Vegas, state Prison Director Bob Bayer said.

An assessment was done after complaints that the site is contaminated and could cause health hazards for the inmates and staff.

"If there are any red flags, I don't see them," said Bayer, who has toured the site six times and has a preliminary environmental assessment that clears the location.

This will be Nevada's first venture in permitting a private company -- Corrections Corp. of America of Nashville, Tenn. -- to construct and run a prison. The state will sign a lease-purchase agreement so that at the end of 20 years it will end up with ownership of the penitentiary at Lamb Boulevard and Smiley Road.

The contract, negotiated over about six months, was expected to be approved today by the state Prison Board and the state Board of Examiners, whose membership each includes Gov. Bob Miller, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa and Secretary of State Dean Heller.

The agreement, said Bayer, will permit the expansion of the 400-bed prison "without additional cost to the taxpayers." The state will pay a rate of $40 for each inmate and $13 per day to retire the building debt.

Corrections Corp. and Wackenhut were judged the two top bidders for the project. Bayer picked Corrections Corp. based on its overall plan. Wackenhut officials complain that their price was more than $80 million lower than Corrections Corp.'s over the life of the project.

Bayer said, "I haven't seen that," referring to the dispute over the contract. He said the initial figures were never disclosed and all four firms came in over the budgeted amount. He said he negotiated the price down to within what the Legislature set aside.

Once approved by the two boards, Bayer said Corrections Corp. can "start scraping dirt immediately" and it must be completed in 11 months or the firm will face penalties. The prison was supposed to be ready by January 1997, but the lengthy negotiations delayed its start.

If there are more delays, Bayer said he may have to send some inmates to be housed out-of-state at a cost of $50 to $55 per day.

The new prison will house all of the women in the corrections system, except for those in honor camps, and the current women's prison in Carson City will be converted into a men's facility.

Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas, and Anne Golonka, president of the National Organization for Women of Southern Nevada, are among those who say the site is not fit. They planned to attend today's meeting to lodge their protests.

Chowning said there are large stacks of tires and mounds of trash near the northeast valley site that could catch fire and cause air pollution problems. She questioned if there was enough water for fire protection.

The dirt, she said, has been contaminated by oil or other petroleum spills.

Bayer said he has heard complaints about the smell but he never detected any odors during his six visits. He said the tires are not close to the prison boundaries and there are not enough of them to cause problems if they catch fire.

He said there is adequate water for fire protection, adding that a number of private firms are building in the area. The underground water flows south, he said, so that any contamination flows away from the prison property.

The state will keep a monitor at the prison, to be paid by Corrections Corp., to make sure the standards are met. "If they don't follow the contract, there are sanctions," Bayer said.

The state will operate the prison canteen to make sure all the money is put into the state system, and the state's computer system will be on-board to provide inmate tracking and information for the Legislature.

Employees of Corrections Corp. will be required to meet Peace Officer Standards Training certification and the state will be able to impose penalties if positions are left vacant.

Salaries for administrators of Corrections Corp. will be comparable to the state system. "Some wardens make more than I do," Bayer said. His salary is about $86,000 a year. He will have veto power of the warden at the North Las Vegas site "if the person is less than desirable."

He said he was able to negotiate design changes so the prison would be built of concrete with stainless steel fixtures to make sure it lasts longer. There will be two cells for death row inmates. Priscilla Ford, who mowed down pedestrians with her car on a Reno street, is the only female awaiting the death sentence.

The $40-per-inmate-per-day rate will be adjusted 3 percent per year. Bayer said the cost of living in past years has been rising slightly faster than that. The state will pay $192,411 per month to pay off the building, which carries a 5.5 percent interest rate.

The $27 million cost of the building, Bayer said, will come under the 2 percent state limit on bonded indebtedness.