Project to help ex-cons in transition

Thursday, Jan. 30, 2003 | 9:13 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state Corrections Department is embarking on a new program designed to help ex-convicts with their transition back into society.

The department is joining with a nonprofit agency, Community Rehabilitation Services, which plans to build a transitional center in Las Vegas to help inmates assimilate into the community.

"We do a good job of keeping them behind the fences," said Glen Whorton, assistant director of the department, but he told legislative budget committees Wednesday that problems often arise when the inmates are released.

An inmate gets his clothes, a bus ticket and $21 upon release, Whorton said.

The nonprofit organization will construct the center and the department will staff it. There will be no violent or sex offenders placed in the facility. Only people who are due to be released on parole within four months and inmates who are within six months of completing their sentence will be eligible to enter the center, Whorton said.

Department Director Jackie Crawford said the inmates will get assistance finding jobs and services in the community.

The first section is planned to open in October with 200 inmates, and an addition is planned for 2004. A location has not been determined.

It will cost $7,683 per inmate per year, compared to the average cost per inmate of $14,532 in the prison system, officials said.

The budget committees were told by correction officials that 65 percent of people sent to prison have no skills. The education level of 48 percent of the male inmates is below the eighth grade level, and 43 percent of the females have less than an eighth grade education.

In related developments Wednesday: