Jail expansion left from ranking

Jace Radke

Friday, May 28, 2004 | 9:36 a.m.

A Justice Department report on prison and jail inmates states that the Clark County Detention Center is the most overcrowded jail in the nation, but the report fails to take into account an expansion project completed in October 2002 that doubled the jail's capacity.

According to the report, the jail had a capacity of 1,488 on June 30, 2003, but had 2,656 inmates. The jail, however, actually had a capacity of 2,610 at the time because of the $67 million expansion of the 20-year-old Clark County Detention Center.

Jennifer Karber, a spokeswoman with the Justice Department's Bureau of Statistics, said that jail capacity numbers are collected from state or local officials on the reporting date -- in this case, June 30, 2003.

"Mistakes can happen," Karber said, adding that there were no notations in the Clark County file mentioning the expansion.

Karber's colleagues might want to take note that the jail now has a capacity of 2,860 because 250 more beds were opened in March, Metro officials said.

Currently all beds at the jail are full, and as of today about 100 inmates are sleeping on cots at the jail. Metro is also paying $50 a day per inmate to house about 145 inmates at the Las Vegas City Jail.

By 2008 Metro estimates that it will need space to house 4,000 people. Ultimately, Sheriff Bill Young would like to see a new holding facility for those who commit low-level and misdemeanor crimes.

The county's detention center along with the jails in Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas and Mesquite have a total of about 5,100 beds, and more than 4,500 are currently filled, authorities said.

Federal prisoners and detainees are also filling jail beds in Clark County. The U.S. Marshals and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have a 15-year agreement with North Las Vegas that allows space for up to 450 federal prisoners at that city's detention center, said Deputy Supervisory U.S. Marshal Fidencio Rivera.

The agreement took effect in 2001 when the federal government paid $5.8 million to North Las Vegas to construct an area for the federal prisoners. The Marshals also have an agreement with Las Vegas to house prisoners, but the city determines how many federal inmates it will allow and how long they will be housed at its facility at Stewart Avenue and Mojave Road.

About 60 percent of the federal defendants for whom the Las Vegas office of the U.S. Marshals Service is responsible are held in North Las Vegas, with the rest in Las Vegas. Las Vegas charges $65 per federal prisoner per day and North Las Vegas charges $72.

There are no plans or budget for a new jail at this point, but it remains a cheaper long-term option for Metro compared with continuing to purchase bed spaces in other jails, which costs about $300,000 a month, officials said.