NLV jail officials seek $5 million for expansion

Kim Smith

Friday, Sept. 10, 1999 | 9:57 a.m.

Officials with the North Las Vegas Detention Center hope to submit a $5 million grant application to the federal government as part of a jail demolition and expansion program.

Ken Ellingson, chief of detention for the city of North Las Vegas, said if awarded the grant, one of the jail's older modular buildings would be demolished and a new, larger concrete and steel building would be built in its place.

Ellingson said he will be seeking the City Council's approval to submit the grant in the near future.

The grant is part of the federal government's Cooperative Agreements Program, said Dave Turner, a Washington, D.C.-based spokesman for the U.S. Marshal's Service. The program allows cities and counties to build facilities using federal funds while guaranteeing bed space for federal prisoners for several years.

Greg Dewey, U.S. Marshal's Las Vegas operation supervisor, said Ellingson met with U.S. Marshal's Service officials about the possibility of pursuing the grant some time ago.

"We all thought it would be a way for them to improve their facility in terms of security and the number of prisoners they could house without it costing the city of North Las Vegas anything," Dewey said.

The new building would accommodate 400 prisoners, or 100 more prisoners than the existing building, Ellingson said. The idea would be to house all of the facility's federal prisoners in the one building.

North Las Vegas currently houses about 350 Bureau of Prison, immigration and U.S. Marshal's Service prisoners throughout the multibuilding facility, Ellingson said. The facility's remaining 300 or so prisoners face state charges.

The North Las Vegas Detention Center was built in 1992 of portable trailers and city officials always knew that they would gradually have to be replaced, Ellingson said.