Editorial: A sorry setting for juveniles

Monday, Sept. 24, 2001 | 8:48 a.m.

Nevadans will be appalled by investigative stories in today's Las Vegas Sun that expose the Summit View Youth Correctional Facility north of Nellis Air Force Base as an operation that is out of control. Reporter Kim Smith writes that the facility, though a mere 15 months old, has experienced sexual and physical abuse by staff members against inmates, drug use, suicide attempts and escapes.

The Sun's stories show that Summit View's workers lack the education and training to handle the state's most serious juvenile criminals. One reason for this is that they make lower wages than colleagues who handle lesser offenders. We also learn that it took the state 11 months to order Youth Services International, the Florida company contracted to operate this new, "privatized" facility, to correct the problems even though the problems had existed virtually since the day Summit View opened in June 2000.

When Summit View opened as Nevada's first privately run youth prison it represented yet another example of the state's ongoing effort to recruit the private sector to help provide services that otherwise would be run by the government. The argument behind privatization is that companies can deliver services with greater efficiency but at lower cost than is true of government. Summit View proves, however, that privatization can turn disastrous when the wrong company is at the helm.

Youth Services International has decided to back out of its Summit View contract by next spring, even though two years remain on its agreement with the state. We say good riddance. The conditions at the youth prison are so deplorable we fear they may have caused irreparable harm to those inmates who could have benefited from the programs Youth Services International was supposed to provide but didn't. They are at an age where rehabilitation may still be possible, but the failure of the state Division of Child and Family Services to act sooner to make Youth Services International improve its performance will make that goal far more difficult to achieve.

We strongly encourage the state to take a fresh look at successful youth prisons elsewhere in the country and adopt the best model for Nevada. It does not matter whether Summit View is run by a private company, a nonprofit organization or the state as long as the facility operates smoothly and rehabilitates its youthful offenders.

We also urge the state to demand that Summit View workers receive better education, training and pay so that the problems that exist there today are eliminated.