Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2002 | 11:16 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Gov. Kenny Guinn wants to reopen Summit View Youth Correctional Center, the prison for serious juvenile offenders in North Las Vegas, with the state -- instead of a private company -- running it. Guinn said Tuesday he would include money in his next budget to reopen the 96-bed center in July.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, isn't sold on the governor's plan, however, and said the numbers he has seen indicate that state operation of the center would be more costly than private management.
To have the state run the center, "I would have to be convinced, especially in these times of tight budgets," Raggio said.
From the time Summit View opened in 2000 to its closure on Jan. 31, 2002, it was run by Correctional Services Corp. But that private contractor pulled out, complaining that the state never put enough inmates in the facility to enable it to make a profit. The state had paid Correctional Services $122 per day per inmate.
Guinn and state Human Resources Director Mike Willden said the state can operate the center at a rate competitive with private companies and would provide better accountability. A state-run center would be a stable work environment for employees, who must be trained to handle violent youth, gang members and drug offenders, state officials said.
A number of problems were documented when Correctional Services ran the center, including escapes and sexual contact between female staff members and male inmates. There also were allegations that Correctional Services didn't hire qualified guards and didn't pay adequate wages, Willden said.
Summit View was built, at a cost of $14 million, because at the time Nevada had more juvenile offenders than it could house, and the problem has only gotten worse, Kirby Burgess, director of the Clark County Juvenile Court Services Department, said.
Summit View's closure has had a ripple effect locally, he said.
"We're starting to see a delay in getting kids into state facilities," Burgess said.
There are currently 50 juvenile prisoners in county jails waiting for the state to take them, officials said. In Clark County as of Tuesday, 29 young men and boys, juveniles classified as serious offenders were waiting at the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center for a bed in a secure facility in or out of state, said Adrienne Cox, assistant director of Clark County Juvenile Justice Service.
The 235-bed county detention center, with its 150 full-time employees staffing nine buildings near Nellis Air Force Base, has housed up to 246 juvenile offenders, Cox said. "For the past year or so, we have been struggling at or near capacity," she said, adding that crowding encourages juvenile prisoners to become more disruptive and threatening toward the staff.
Compounding the problem, once young inmates have been cleared for transfer to state custody, the time they serve in the county detention center no longer counts toward their sentence -- a situation juvenile officials call "serving dead time," Burgess said.
"Can you imagine being in jail for a crime and the time you spend there, you're just there, you don't get any time off of your sentence?" he said. "Overwhelmingly the kids who get into the most trouble are those who are just sitting, idling."
Cox added, "We would be very, very supportive of Summit View reopening."
The state's other juvenile detention centers, in Elko and Caliente, are filled to capacity and the state has sent about two dozen Nevada juveniles to available cells in Tennessee and Texas, according to state officials.
However, Burgess said, that makes it difficult, if not impossible, for family or friends to visit the juveniles and those types of visits can be keys to rehabilitation, officials said.
After Correctional Services announced it would pull out, Guinn and Willden proposed the state reopen the facility. They estimated the state could run the center for $155 per day per inmate.
But the Legislative Interim Finance Committee nixed that plan and told the administration to find a private contractor. In the meantime, the inmates were placed in other facilities at a cost of $113 to $126 a day. Bids were solicited and Securicor New Century of Richmond, Va., was selected as the operator. But before a contract could be signed, the state's budget crisis worsened. Instead of going with Securicor, the state decided to ship the inmates to other places.
Willden said the bids from the two private companies that sought the contract ranged from $149 to $160 per day for each inmate. Guinn suggested the state's initial $155 per inmate estimate could be knocked down to $145 or $150.
The governor said he wants to reopen Summit View on July 1, starting with 20 to 25 inmates and slowly phasing in the rest until the 96 beds are occupied.
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