Public safety budget has hike for prisons, pays for hazardous material center

Tuesday, June 1, 1999 | 7:21 a.m.

Highlights of the $370.5 million earmarked for prisons and other public safety categories in the final budget approved by Nevada lawmakers:

PRISONS: Legislators earmarked $303 million for the state's prison system - trimming $9 million from Gov. Kenny Guinn's proposed budget.

PRIVATE WOMEN'S PRISON - The budget for the private women's prison in southern Nevada was trimmed by $8.6 over two years. The state will spend $15 million over the next two years to house women inmates there.

PRISON MEDICAL - Lawmakers decided not to privatize medical services throughout the prison system, as Guinn had proposed. The final budget for prison medical is $62.3 million for the next two years. Guinn had budgeted $58.6 million.

JEAN PRISON - The state prison at Jean will be mothballed for four years. But legislators budgeted $10.4 million for that facility - $1.8 million more than the governor proposed. The 159 employees at Jean will be laid off, but most employees could shift to the expanding Cold Creek Correctional Center, also in Southern Nevada.

COLD CREEK: Construction costs for the second phase of the new prison at Cold Creek were cut by $5.3 million by going with the same contractor who built the first phase. The new budget for the 3,000 bed facility is $16.6 million.

PAROLE-PROBATION: The state Department of Parole and Probation gets $56.8 million, $16 million over the current budget, and $6.4 million than the governor allotted to the department.

-FIRE MARSHAL: Cuts the state fire marshal's share of general funds from $466,063 to $2,000 from the last biennium, but federal funding increases by nearly $1 million, bringing the total budget to more than $2.8 million.