Prisoner re-entry center OK’d

Thursday, June 17, 2004 | 8:23 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Legislative Interim Finance Committee Wednesday approved plans by the state Corrections Department to go forward with plans to open a re-entry center in Las Vegas for convicted felons who are being released on parole.

Members of the commission generally praised the concept that will give training and secure housing and get inmates ready to get a job when they are released from custody.

But Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, chairman of the committee, said, "I hope this doesn't turn into a monster that haunts us for a long time."

Jackie Crawford, director of the Corrections Department, said she would not have spent a year creating this plan "if I thought it was a loser." She assured the committee that it would be as successful as a similar program in Washoe County where the recidivism rate is 18 percent.

She told the committee that there are 700 to 800 inmates at High Desert or Southern Desert prisons because of parole violations. "We're wasting money," she said in not preparing inmates to return to living in society.

Casa Grande will be built under terms of a lease-purchase arrangement in which the state will buy the seven-acre site for about $3 million and developer Irvin Molasky will build the center -- to be called Casa Grande, Spanish for "big house"-- and lease it back to the state for 35 years. The state would then own the full center that would eventually house 400 inmates.

Plans call for the pre-release center to open in July 2005 at a site west of Interstate 15 near Quail Avenue and Russell Road.

There will initially be 200 inmates, a number that will jump to 400 in 2006.

The inmates who have been granted parole will stay in the center for an estimated four months to find jobs and housing and to receive training and other rehabilitation. Residents will pay room and board at about $16 per day to cover part of the lease cost.

Sen. Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson, questioned how the inmates would find housing. "Housing is a real issue in Las Vegas," she said, noting the rising prices.

Dorothy Nash Holmes, head of program services for the Corrections Department, said it has been working with the housing agencies in Southern Nevada to find homes for these inmates when they are released. The department's also worked with industry and unions to find jobs for these people.

Tiffany praised the program calling it "the right public policy" and added it would result in potential savings because it will cost less to house inmates in Casa Grande than in prison. Assemblyman David Parks, D-Las Vegas, also commended the Corrections Department.

The Corrections Department will consolidate all its offices in Southern Nevada at the site. The state Parole Board will also re-locate its offices there.

Glen Whorton, assistant director of operations for the department, said no sex offenders or violent offenders will be placed at Casa Grande. And no one with an escape attempt will be allowed there either.

The lease-purchase deal is similar to an agreement approved earlier this year to construct an office building in Carson City for the state Conservation and Natural Resources Department.

The state will issue "certificates of participation" in August or September that will be purchased and the state will pay off those in 35 years.