Program planned to ease ex-cons into community

Diana Sahagun

Friday, March 31, 2000 | 10:41 a.m.

When federal and state inmates with Las Vegas roots are released from prison, they're given $21 and a plane ticket back to the city.

"They need a lot more than that," Mayor Oscar Goodman said at his weekly press conference Thursday.

Goodman announced during the conference that the city will be part of a pilot program through the U.S. attorney's office to help inmates get back into the community without slipping through the cracks.

"These are people who were from Las Vegas, went into the system, and are now released and coming back," he said.

Las Vegas is expected to welcome in 2,300 former inmates from federal and state prisons next year who are not subject to any kind of probation or parole, Goodman said. Someone needs to be watching out for them, he said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Howard Zlotnick said the program is needed so that former inmates coming into the community have the opportunities and the support systems that will help them succeed.

"In addition," Zlotnick said, "they need to be carefully watched so if they are not able to take advantage of these opportunities, then there will be a law enforcement response."

Although he said the specifics are still being worked out, the program would involve all facets of the city, including the police department and governmental agencies.

"The key is they're coming back here anyway. It's not like we're trying to bring them back here," Zlotnick said. "It's important because you can't write off a whole segment of society."

Goodman said city agencies could go into the prisons to tell the inmates before their release that "we want to help them get jobs and become reunited with their family."

"I've always felt prisons are woefully inadequate in preparing people for society," the mayor said. "I would like to see them come back here in a manner that they'll be contributing to the potential good of society."