Lawmakers told prisons face worker shortages

Friday, June 26, 1998 | 10:34 a.m.

Director Bob Bayer told the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee that there are 50 prison job vacancies at Ely and another 40 at the state prison in Lovelock.

"We are reaching a critical situation," he said Thursday. "We have probably used up the pool of workers in the local market."

Finding workers for Ely, in particular, is difficult because of the area's high living costs and remote eastern Nevada location, Bayer said.

Unless more workers are found quickly, Bayer said he may send some staff from Carson City to work temporarily in Ely. The maximum-security prison there is supposed to have a staff of 344.

Because of the high-security design of the prison in Ely, Bayer said the facility remains secure now despite all the job vacancies.

"But it is getting to the point it is a serious situation," he added.

Bayer also said he may send as many as 100 women inmates to prisons in other states later this year because of the lack of facilities in Nevada.

The female incarceration rate has skyrocketed in the last year, he said. Even the new 530-bed privately run prison in North Las Vegas, which opened last year, has reached capacity.

Space can be found in other states for Nevada inmates at $40 to $60 per day, he said. It costs about $40 a day to house female inmates in Nevada.

Bayer's concern about the lack of workers induced Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, to suggest that a private company operate the Ely prison.

Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-North Las Vegas, said perhaps the prison should be sold and a new one constructed in a metropolitan area.

Raggio said private companies operating prisons don't have problems filling vacancies.

Lawmakers, however, can't take any formal action on prison worker needs before the Legislature convenes next year.

Bayer said he cannot understand why developers haven't constructed more rental housing in Lovelock, where workers must drive long distances to the medium-security prison because of the lack of housing.

Bayer also said he has been hampered in finding housing in both Lovelock and Ely because mining companies have bought up most housing for their workers.