Monday, May 24, 2004 | 10:57 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- State corrections officials want to build an industrial park next to the High Desert State Prison near Indian Springs to provide more work opportunities for inmates.
The Corrections Department has purchased 22.5 acres near the High Desert State Prison from the Bureau of Land Management for $124,000 and will turn it into an industrial park where private companies could build facilities and use prison labor. It could employ up to 1,000 inmates, Howard Skolnik, deputy director in the state Department of Corrections, told legislators Thursday.
The goal is to have 20 percent of the prisoners employed in some type of program, up from the present 6 percent to 7 percent. The types of jobs have yet to be determined.
Corrections officials outlined the proposal to the Legislative Committee on Industrial Programs and reported that the industrial program that puts inmates to work in the state prison system is turning a profit for the first six months of this fiscal year.
Skolnik reported that the program posted a $137,558 profit from July through December of last year. That compares with a $330,495 loss last fiscal year, which ended June 30, and a loss of $201,660 in fiscal 2002.
He said the losses were posted because of program expansions that required capital construction and equipment purchases.
Jackie Crawford, Corrections Department director, told the committee this would be "a model for other states."
Assemblyman John Marvel, R-Battle Mountain, the chairman of the committee, called it "very ingenious -- quite a concept -- a novelty."
Skolnik said the state has the land and zoning approval from Clark County. A request for proposals is being reviewed to get bids from private companies.
He envisioned a partnership between a contractor and a person who would manage the industrial park and find the businesses to locate there.
The inmates would be employed by these businesses but would return to the prison after completing their shifts. There would be 600,000 square feet of industrial space.
Skolnik estimated that the inmates would pay the prison $2.2 million for their room and board, money that would come out of their salaries. There would be an estimated $468,000 available to compensate victims of crime.
The state would lease the property to the private businesses.
"Inmates would have money in the bank when they got out, plus training," Skolnik said.
He said a few inmates who have worked in prison industry programs have "tens of thousands of dollars" saved when they are released and it was not uncommon for prisoners to have $1,000 or more in the bank when freed.
"When you release an inmate with $25 (gate money) and the clothes on his back, you are not giving him a chance" to make it on the outside, he said.
He said he hopes the first inmates will be able to go to work at the industrial park in 24 months. It would be up to private business to provide the $50 million to $60 million to build the necessary infrastructure.
He told the committee that an industry building at High Desert State Prison is being constructed and, when completed this fall, should employ 150 inmates.
The Corrections Department is also working on installing a new system -- cook chill -- for feeding all inmates at the various prisons called. Crawford said the inmates now get "good food" but this would standardize the meals at all the institutions.
Two companies have been designated as qualified to bid on the business. They are Aramark and Canteen, both of which are in the food service business. One of them would be selected to run the program.
The food would be prepared at one or two prisons and then chilled but not frozen. Skolnik said food loses some of its taste if frozen. It would be kept refrigerated and have a shelf life of five days. It would then be trucked to the various prisons and honor camps.
The prison might be able to sell to other institutions and even to private industry. Even though it would be run by a private company, no inmate would lose his job, Skolnik said.
He estimated it would cost $25 million in capital improvements to get the system working and that money would have to come from private industry or the federal government.
The wild horse program at the prison is "financially doing well," Skolnik said. There are 450 to 460 wild horses that have been captured by the state or federal government and are being "gentled" at the holding facilities at the prison.
Skolnik said the prison receives $2.74 a day to care for the horses. These horses are then auctioned off, returned to the range or sent to a long-term holding facility. "No horses are going to consumption," he said.
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