Judges warn budget cuts may hurt public safety

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2002 | 10:58 a.m.

Clark County officials, angry about not being consulted over budget cuts in the state Department of Parole and Probation, said the cuts could end up costing taxpayers more in the long run.

As part of a 3 percent cut ordered in September for most state agencies, Parole and Probation was told to pare $901,683 from its current budget, said Amy Wright, deputy chief of the Las Vegas region, which handles 60 percent of the state's cases.

For Parole and Probation, the agency that monitors convicts put on probation or parole, the cuts mean a hiring freeze, closing offices and cutting back on drug testing. Under a proposed cut that would take effect in July, the office wouldn't have the option to give defendants community service instead of jail or prison time.

Loehrer said she believes state officials will one day rue their decision.

"I think it just may be that they are being penny wise and pound foolish if the budget cuts result in more people being sent to prison," Loehrer said.

Agencies also were ordered to include 3 percent cuts in their proposed spending plans for the next two years. The budget for the 2003-05 biennium will be decided in the 2003 Legislature, which convenes in February.

By comparison, the state prison system is reducing its budget by $5.1 million and laying off 21 people. Gov. Kenny Guinn has said the layoffs will not affect security in the prison system.

While Parole and Probation will not have to lay off workers, some of the cuts made or planned for the department have caught the attention of judges and the district attorney in Clark County.

Of primary concern to District Court judges is the termination of the state's $50,000 annual contract with HELP of Southern Nevada, a 32-year-old nonprofit organization responsible for finding community service projects for probationers and tracking their hours.

The plan was included in the 2003-05 budget plan, which still has to go to the state Legislature.

Without any increase in revenue, the state could be $799 million in the red in the next biennium, according to the governor's tax task force. However, the task force is putting the finishing touches on a proposal to boost taxes to bridge the shortfall, which the Legislature will also consider.

If the cuts survive the legislative session, in July 2003 community service will no longer exist for those who go through the District Court system. Those who are ordered to perform community service through Justice Courts will be unaffected because another program coordinates their service.

Deni Conrad, executive director of HELP of Southern Nevada, said between 2,000 and 3,000 probationers provide roughly $2 million in free labor every year to 233 agencies, including the Boys and Girls Club and Clark County Parks and Recreation Department.

"Fifty thousand dollars is peanuts to the state to monitor this program, and in the last 10 years we have not received, nor sought, an increase, so our program was pretty cost effective," Conrad said. "I really think the state needs to re-evaluate this decision."

The group will lobby the Legislature to get the money reinstated.

If community service is cut, the result will be that defendants who might have received probation with community service probably will go to prison, so that judges can be sure they get some punishment, District Judge Donald Mosley said.

"They've discontinued the punitive aspects of probation," Mosley said. "Because of these cuts judges are reduced to what? Giving counseling and forgetting about (the crimes) or sending them to prison."

Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell said he hopes something can be done to save community service.

"When a defendant has to go out every week to paint a church or pick up trash, it reinforces the idea that there are consequences for their actions," Bell said. "When they're out every week in the hot sun, they're thinking about whether they want to steal a car again."

The state will shave $170,000 off its budget by giving up a leased space on Third Street and cramming nearly 60 officers into its already crowded office at 215 E. Bonanza Road.

Judges are concerned that defendants who are recently convicted will be required to go to a new location several blocks from the courthouse to help probation officers prepare their pre-sentence investigation reports.

Pre-sentence reports are required by law to be prepared before sentencing and must be completed with the aid of defendants. If they are not prepared on time, sentencing hearings are postponed and backlogs occur.

As it stands now, defendants who accept a plea deal and who are out of jail are required to report to Parole and Probation the same day for a sentencing report. By moving the office farther away, there may be problems getting those reports done, officials said.

"Defendants can't walk from the courthouse to Bonanza," Loehrer said, noting that many probationers are likely to skip the trip. "Some of them have problems going to P and P (Parole and Probation) now and it's just a block away."

Loehrer also is not pleased that the state cut the department's drug testing budget by 50 percent in order to save almost $140,000 over the next two years.

"Why do we even bother to have people on probation and give them no-alcohol and no-drug clauses if probation isn't even going to bother to test them? Who are we fooling?" Loehrer said. "Eighty percent of the people we see are drug and alcohol users."

Bell and the judges said they fear that things are only going to get worse.

David Sonner, district administrator of Parole and Probation, said officials are already looking at other cost-saving measures.

"If we have another wave of cuts, it will be a public-safety issue," Sonner said. "If there is another wave of cuts, it will mean some real hard decisions -- personnel or layoffs may be an option."

Mosley said it is human nature for agency officials to complain about cutbacks, but noted that the Department of Parole and Probation was already operating on a slim budget.

"I have told people in charge of P and P for eons that I and the other judges will go to the Legislature to say 'You've got to pay for the criminal justice system. It doesn't work by itself,' " Mosley said.