Prison said to be deteriorating

Thursday, June 17, 2004 | 9:12 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- After hearing complaints that conditions are deteriorating at the privately run state women's prison in North Las Vegas, the Legislative Interim Finance Committee has authorized the state to take over its operation on Oct. 1.

Corrections Corp. of America, which built and has operated the prison since 1997, has told the state it would not renew its contract when it expires Sept. 30.

It is the third time this year that the state will have taken control of a prison that was privately run. Summit View Youth Correctional Center, which had been run by Correctional Services Corp., was reopened in January by the state after the company pulled out and closed the facility in March 2002.

The state also is taking over medical services at the maximum-security state prison in Ely because Corrections Corp. of America, which had been providing the care, canceled its contract effective Oct., 1.

Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas, said she visited the Southern Nevada Women's Facility recently and found rehabilitation programs "have come to a screeching halt." She said there was little or no counseling.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said she had also visited the prison and found that hundreds of inmates were "over-drugged." She said she found the medical care "almost non-existent."

Security was lax and she saw a correctional officer being rude to a visitor, Giunchigliani said.

Private operation of the prison has not worked, she said, adding that women deserve the same services as men in prison.

The state went out to bid for a private company to succeed Corrections Corp. of America and received three proposals. They were from Civigenics Inc. of Marlborough, Mass., Cornell Cos. of Houston, and Management and Training Corp. of Centerville, Utah.

Chowning said there are "horror stories" involving the companies' prison operations in other places. She said these companies were involved in "inappropriate actions" but she did not elaborate.

"Our state needs to take control," Chowning said.

Darrel Rexwinkel, assistant director for support services in the corrections department, it will cost the state $62 a day per inmate to run the prison compared with the bids by the private companies that ranged from $53 to $56 per day per inmate.

That comes to about $8 million a year for the state to operate the facility.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said the department will need an additional $1.2 million from the 2005 Legislature to carry it through the next fiscal year.

Assemblywoman Kathy McClain, D-Las Vegas, said the state's proposed $62 per-day cost was below California and Colorado and at the same level as what is spent in Oregon.

She said putting the state in charge would provide adequate medical care and put the inmates "on the road to becoming good citizens again."

The corrections department said one key difference would be that the private companies would pay correctional officers $27,000 a year plus benefits of about 27.7 percent. The starting pay for a correctional officer in the state is $33,800 plus benefits of about 42 percent.