Panel calls for prison takeover

Stephen Curran

Friday, June 4, 2004 | 9:21 a.m.

Saying it will ensure "parity in treatment" with men's facilities, a legislative subcommittee on Thursday recommended the state's Corrections Department go ahead with plans to take over the women's prison in North Las Vegas.

The move means the state is expected to take over operation of the prison, now run by Corrections Corporation of America, which built and has operated the prison since 1997. CCA will relinquish control of the 460-inmate prison Sept. 30, said Howard Skolnick, assistant director of the Corrections Department.

The subcommittee, which met Thursday at the University of Nevada, Reno, must now make a formal recommendation to the Interim Finance Committee, which meets later this month, said the chairman, Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno.

CCA opted to terminate its contract after state legislators refused to take over medical care for the prison. The state received three proposals from competing companies, but none provided for medical care.

"The state was obviously going to have to take up running the facility," Raggio said. "I'm disappointed that a private contractor couldn't provide better for this facility."

The move could mean an increased cost of about $1 million per year, stemming mostly from higher salaries for state employees, Skolnick said. The starting pay for a state correctional officer is between $32,000 and $33,000, compared to the roughly $27,000 offered by several private companies.

The North Las Vegas prison employs 115 people, he said.

Skolnick said the higher salaries are necessary to retain experienced guards, who often leave to take higher-paying jobs with city or county governments and puts the department in a position to compete with the rapidly expanding service industry.

"It's more an issue of retention than it is the quality of people," he said. "We're simply able to hold onto people with a higher salary."

The state estimates it will cost about $62.78 per day to provide for a woman in the jail, about $15 of which covers medical costs. Private sector proposals ranged from $54.91 to $58.07, he said.

Bids to take over the prison came from Civigenics Inc. of Marlborough, Mass., Cornell Co. of Houston and Management and Training Corp. of Centerville, Utah.