Lawmakers debate prison budgets, problems with convicts

Wednesday, Feb. 12, 1997 | 4:23 a.m.

Gov. Bob Miller's budget provides $273.2 million over the next two years for the system to deal with an inmate population that's growing faster than the state's overall population.

Between 1990 and 1996, the number of inmates increased by 2,500 to 8,325 inmates and is expected to jump by another 3,500 to 11,855 inmates by 2002, Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means members were told Tuesday.

Nevada Prisons Director Bob Bayer said 25 percent of the prison inmates remain locked up as a result of tougher crime laws passed during the last legislative session.

But that percentage will climb because criminals affected by the 1995 laws, which boosts some prison terms and mandates minimum sentences, are working their way through the system and are only now showing up in the statistics, Bayer added.

In order to accommodate more inmates in the system, Miller included funding for a $90.5 million medium-security, men's prison in Indian Springs, near Las Vegas.

The first phase of the new prison will hold 1,500 beds and will eventually hold 3,000 beds. Completion of the new facility is slated for late 1999.

Although plans for the prison are underway, Senate Finance Chairman Bill Raggio asked Bayer to assess the feasibility of turning the prison over to a private contractor, and report his findings to a prison subcommittee.

Nevada's women prisoners will be moved into the state's first private prison in September when the 500-bed Southern Nevada Women's Prison opens in Las Vegas.

The governor recommended spending $17 million for use of the new prison. Once the women are shifted from an existing prison in Carson City, the Carson prison will be converted to a male facility.

Cost of the expansion and conversion of the prison here will be $8.2 million. Once completed, the facility will hold 510 beds.

Bayer said he's proud of the fact that Nevada has the 10th lowest cost per inmate in the nation and the lowest in the West. It costs the state $15,164 per year to house one inmate.

However, that low cost is being carried in part on the backs of state prison guards, according to Bob Gagnier of the State of Nevada Employees Association.

"The salaries of our correctional personnel have been slipping badly behind the salaries of local government employers," Gagnier said.

"Correctional officers, forensic specialists and caseworkers who manage the inmates in our prisons deserve and are overdue for a substantial increase (in pay)."

Last year, 32 of the 38 guards who left Nevada's prisons reported they went to jobs that paid more, and 22 of those took jobs with correctional facilities in Clark County, Gagnier said.

County jail staffers get paid 50 percent more than state personnel and don't have the long commutes the state workers have to prisons located away from urban areas, Gagnier said.

"We keep losing the most experienced people," he said. "The state system is a training ground for local governments."