Saturday, April 25, 1998 | 4:44 a.m.
NORTH LAS VEGAS -- Razor wire spirals wrapped atop a chain-link fence cast shadows on groups of denim-clad women sharing smokes and chatting quietly in a blacktop courtyard.
Set back from a dusty desert road with only salvage yards for neighbors, the well-secured jail in North Las Vegas looks like any other Nevada prison.
But this is no typical prison. For the state of Nevada, it's an experiment.
Seven months ago, hundreds of women whose crimes range from writing bad checks to murder were bussed from the 50-year-old state penitentiary in Carson City to Nevada's first privately owned prison.
"Three days after our final inspection, the first inmates arrived," said Rich Douglas, spokesman for the 500-bed facility owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America. "Within two weeks, we had 400 inmates."
Inside the cement block walls, imprisoned grandmothers, mothers and high school dropouts shuffle from their cells to their jobs, therapy sessions, classes and recreational activities.
The inmates rise about 7 a.m. As their alphabetically organized living quarters are called out, they head to the commissary for breakfast. An hour later, they scatter. Some head to jobs sites like the in-house beauty salon or the laundry room. Others go to class or attend intense therapy sessions.
The only inmate given a strict regiment is perhaps the jail's most infamous prisoner -- Priscilla Ford.
The state's sole female death row inmate is segregated from other prisoners. The 69-year-old, who killed six people in 1980 when she sped down a crowded Reno sidewalk in her Lincoln Continental, is allowed out of her cell for one hour a day.
The inmates' every move is monitored by the corporation's correctional officers, perched in locked towers at each corridor intersection. In turn, the corporation administrators' every move is watched by the state.
"We're very much in the early stages of determining how good this will be for the state," said Howard Skolnik, assistant director of the Nevada Department of Prisons. "If there are any major operational problems, we can go in, pay CCA and take it over."
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Three years ago when the state was searching for ways to relieve its overcrowded jail system, it joined hundreds of other government entities worldwide and turned to a privately-held prison management company.
Nevada officials hired CCA -- a penitentiary powerhouse that owns 34 prisons around the world and manages 77 others -- to build a $25 million prison in North Las Vegas.
"It was a matter of timing," Skolnik said. "While our lead time from construction to opening would be about four years, the private sector is capable of doing it in one to two years."
Las Vegas was an ideal site for the state women's facility. Most inmates are Southern Nevada residents and the new prison makes it easier for children to visit their mothers.
The state pays CCA $40 per inmate per day; the Carson City prison spent nearly $5 more per prisoner daily.
Unlike the state, private companies can avoid the bureaucratic hassles of waiting for new budget cycles and then getting approval to use the money.
Proponents of privatization say the two corporations that make up 75 percent of the prison management market -- CCA and Wackenhut Corrections Corp. -- are more financially efficient than public agencies.
Their operating costs are 15-20 percent less than the government's operating costs.
"Private sectors can shop the market to get the best bang for the dollar," said Tony Ventetuolo Jr., president of the Rhode Island-based Avcorr Consultants, which monitors private prisons. "They know if there is a good deal, they can buy it cheaper and quicker."
Ventetuolo said inmate programs are the first to go when public prisons are in a budget crunch. Prisons like the Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Facility don't have the luxury of cutting back such programs.
"Privatized operators know they are being looked at more closely; they know they're in a fish bowl," Ventetuolo said. "They need to run a top-notch operation because if they don't do it, another company will come in and do it for them."
Douglas said CCA's prison in North Las Vegas goes beyond what other privately owned jails offer.
Its high school classes are taught by Clark County School District personnel. With seven instructors, an administrator and a principal overseeing the program, students can either receive their GED or earn a high school diploma.
About 25 students will take part in the jail's first high school graduation ceremonies in June, Douglas said.
Prisoners also can participate in parenting and "street readiness" classes, alcoholics and narcotics anonymous programs and anger management sessions. They have a therapy community that spends the entire day counseling each other.
"Large corporations can offer programs the state can't offer," Douglas said. "We want to give inmates nearing their release the skills and tools they need so they do not get themselves in the same situation that brought them here."
Although the inmates' day is relatively unscheduled, few will be seen flopped on a couch watching television. Time is whittled off their sentence if they take classes or work.
Those relaxing in plastic outdoor furniture are typically in between classes or shifts. Each prisoner has the freedom to watch television, play softball or hit the weight room, which in a female facility is the least popular activity.
"The women prefer therapy and activities like arts and crafts; the men are the exact opposite," Douglas said.
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Inmates come and go from their living quarters during the day. When they buzz the correctional officer to gain access, there is usually a brief conversation. Guards and prisoners all know each other by name.
There are no stone-faced correctional officers barking orders, even though the guards at private prisons go through the same type of training as state employees.
"The difference from what I've seen is the relationship between the private sector officers and inmates is a more positive interactive relationship," Ventetuolo said. "That's because the employee has more stake in what goes on."
Some critics argue that more fraternization goes on in private prisons. But Douglas said inmates have the same rights as state prisoners and correctional officers are held to the same standards as state guards.
To ensure inmates are being treated fairly, a state prisons employee is at the facility full time to monitor the operation.
"The inmates use the Nevada Department of Prisons grievance system," Douglas said. "If an inmate files a grievance, the state requires that its staff handles it."
Ventetuolo said relationships between inmates and prison workers are less likely to occur in a privatized facility because the repercussions can be devastating to the corporation.
"With government jurisdictions, there is no competition, so whether you run a good ship or not, there are no consequences," he said. "In a privatized operation, if you don't meet the contract or get sued for malpractice, it translates into lost revenues."
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Revenues and profits are exactly why some people are concerned about the move toward privately owned or managed prisons.
The prison management industry is expanding and becoming increasingly competitive. In the United States, there are 120 privately operated facilities in 27 states.
Some feel the profit-driven corporate giants and their powerful lobbyists are losing sight of the prison system's goal, which was once to rehabilitate criminals.
"The dangers are when you have the accumulation of a lot of money, the money starts to talk and drive public policy," said Neil McCabe, a Texas A&M University professor who studies the privatization of prisons.
"They need to make sure they fill the cells, so they lobby to make sure people are penalized and incarcerated."
McCabe said a prison's role as a rehabilitating facility is long gone. A jail's primary purpose is to incarcerate a criminal and second to incapacitate a criminal.
"Rehabilitation is available, but that's not what it's all about," he said.
McCabe agrees that private prisons are as effective as public facilities and can be built and operated more cheaply. But, he warned, prisoners may have a different take on the privatization trend that started 15 years ago.
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"Rather than the public punishing them for a crime against the public, they are receiving punishment from a private entity," McCabe said.
Despite concerns, those who have studied the development of private prisons predict that more and more government entities will turn to companies to operate their jails.
Of the 1.8 million adults incarcerated in the United States, between 130,000 and 150,000 are in private facilities, Ventetuolo said. He believes that number will double in the next two years.
"Our criminal justice system is becoming more punitive and more people are getting longer sentences," he said. "It's a drain on governments and they are looking for ways to deal with the problem."
A study scheduled to be released next week by the Reason Public Institute, a research organization based in Los Angeles, indicates private prisons are more successful than government-run facilities.
While 24 percent of inmates released from public prisons return to jail, the recidivism rate for prisoners housed at private facilities is 17 percent, according to the study entitled "Private Prisons: Quality Corrections at a Lower Cost."
George Passantino, director of public affairs for the non-partisan organization, said the study also shows that a company's drive for profit is healthy.
"Correctional officers have a lot of political clout; they're not exactly 30-pound weaklings," Passantino said. "We don't perceive competition as a bad thing. Through motives you get innovation."
Passantino added that inmates may be better treated at private facilities, because there are other agencies overseeing the operation.
"When it's publicly run, there is an element of self-policing and you're not going to have any accountability there," he said.
Nevada officials say while they are dabbling in the private prison industry, the state has no immediate plans to forfeit any of its facilities to private companies.
Skolnik said the North Las Vegas facility has so far passed inspections conducted by the state and American Corrections Association.
"So far, so good," he said. "We're all in a learning curve on it. We don't know what the future for Nevada will be. We just haven't had enough experience."
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