Subcommittee votes to keep Jean prison open

Friday, April 30, 1999 | 12:26 p.m.

Guinn projected saving $10 million a year by closing the prison and transferring inmates and employees to the yet-uncompleted Cold Creek State Prison near Indian Springs in September 2000. The administration wants to open the first two phases of the new prison at that time.

But the special Senate-Assembly subcommittee on prisons voted Thursday to reject the Guinn plan, with every Assembly member opposed to the idea. The plan needed a majority of members from each house of the Legislature to pass.

The rejection came even though Guinn's legal counsel, Scott Scherer, warned legislators they would to need to find the money elsewhere if they rejected the governor's cost-cutting plans.

But Assembly Ways and Means Chairman Morse Arberry, D-North Las Vegas, questioned whether the Legislature needs to find any additional money.

"We don't even know if the second phase of Cold Creek is necessary," he said. "We are still assessing it. They have to meet us halfway."

He added the state may save money by keeping the Jean prison open and just completing the first, 900-bed portion of the Cold Creek prison.