Cost high at youth facility

Friday, May 30, 1997 | 11:44 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- State legislators quizzed Clark County officials about the $59,000 per-year per-inmate cost at the Spring Mountain youth detention center in Southern Nevada.

Assemblywoman Jan Evans, D-Sparks, told Kirby Burgess, director of Clark County Youth and Family Services, that the operating costs "were extraordinarily high."

For instance, she said, the China Springs youth detention center in Douglas County operates a 40-bed facility for $900,000 compared to the 80-bed Spring Mountain center's $4.2 million. The 176-bed Nevada Youth Training Center in Elko, operated by the state, costs $5.6 million.

Assemblyman Jack Close, R-Las Vegas, said he was worried about a "lack of accountability of funds" in the operation of Spring Mountain. Assemblyman Lynn Hettrick, R-Minden, said more information is needed before the state puts additional money into Spring Mountain.

Burgess conceded the operating costs were high but said there are reasons. The camp was built by the Air Force in 1952 and taken over by Clark County in 1971 for a youth center. It is deteriorating, and money must be spent on its maintenance.

It operates academic and athletic programs, is involved in forestry projects and has a drug program. And it has a long-time staff which means higher pay and more benefits than the younger China Springs, where the cost is $22,000 per year per inmate.

Burgess was before the Assembly Ways and Means Committee pushing Assembly Bill 464 for $11.7 million in state funds to overhaul the camp and an annual $920,000 in operating costs. The state now allocates $351,000 a year for Spring Mountain.

Assemblywoman Sandi Krenzer, D-Las Vegas, praised the program, saying she has seen "remarkable turnarounds in the kids" who emerged from Spring Mountain.

"They write home. They miss their parents, some of whom they may have assaulted," she said.

"I have not seen any other correctional center prison that has been able to do this."

Burgess said Clark County voters approved a $120 million bond issue for expansion of the jail, a new courthouse and added facilities for youths. But it was not enough to cover all the needs and he wants the state to help out in rebuilding the Spring Mountain camp.

Plans call for five new units with 20 inmates each and tearing down the present 80-bed facility.

Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, committee chairman, said options are being explored to turn the state prison at Jean into a youth corrections center. He said the 400-bed facility could be operated by the state or the county.

That would require adding another 500 beds to plans for a 1,000-inmate new prison at Indian Springs, he said. Nothing is firm, Arberry said, but the committee staff is studying that alternative.

Burgess said the $351,000 a year in state aid to Spring Mountain compares with $381,000 a year to China Springs which has only one-half the number of beds. At the very least, he said, the state should contribute $760,000 as its share of the cost.

But legislators asked Burgess to supply more figures on why his costs were so high compared to other correctional centers.