Assembly committee supports inmate work bill

Tuesday, March 4, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Although Judiciary Chairman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, delayed a vote on AB189 because committee member Richard Perkins was absent, Anderson said the bill was a good one that should go back to the Assembly floor soon.

Anderson is among the bill's eight bipartisan co-sponsors.

AB189, introduced by Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko, calls for counties that don't have inmate programs by January 1998 to conduct studies of services that inmates could perform.

If the studies prove that inmate programs would be feasible, the counties would submit a report to the state and possibly get state funding to help implement them, Carpenter said.

"There is a new buzzword today, and that is work," Carpenter said.

According to Washoe County sheriff's spokesman Eric Cooper, Washoe, Douglas and Clark counties and Carson City already have inmate community service programs.

Carpenter said the bill is meant to deal with rural counties that have resisted inmate work programs. "If they have a good reason why they can't do it, then they can come back and tell that to the Legislature," he added.

Committee member Brian Sandoval, R-Reno, another one of the bill's sponsors, stressed that the programs aren't mandatory for prisoners and don't include inmates who are awaiting trial.

"Washoe's is fully voluntary," Sandoval said. "You can either be locked up for 18 hours a day or go outside and work."