Vacant prison proposed for use as youth detention facility

David Kihara

Monday, Feb. 28, 2005 | 10:57 a.m.

When Aaron Estrada entered High Desert State Prison near Indian Springs in 2003 at the age of 15, he expected he would spend at least 10 years behind bars at the crowded penitentiary.

Estrada, now 17, was convicted of battery with use of a deadly weapon in 2003 after he shot a rival gang member in the chest during a confrontation. He is serving a 2- to 10-year sentence.

Yet if Director of Prisons Jackie Crawford has her way, Estrada could leave the cramped cells at High Desert State Prison by October 2006 and move to the relative openness of the currently vacant Southern Nevada Correctional Center in Jean, 30 miles south of Las Vegas.

Estrada hopes Crawford gets her way.

"I like it here," Estrada said as he toured the open yard of the empty prison facility with Crawford, two other inmates, and several prison guards and administrators on Friday. "It feels more like a high school than a prison."

Crawford is proposing to turn the mothballed Southern Nevada Correctional Center into a detention center for juvenile offenders. The prison would offer the young inmates a wide range of programs designed to rehabilitate them and keep them out of Nevada's ever-growing prison system, she said.

The Southern Nevada Correctional Center is needed because the state is running out of space to house both youth and adult offenders, she said.

There are 1,003 male "youth offenders" in the prison system. They range in age from 14 to 22, with the average age being 18, Crawford said.

There are also 66 female youth offenders in the prison system, she said.

The total inmate population in Nevada in the 19 prisons and work camps now stands at 11,475 and is growing, she said. If the prison population made up the population of a city, it would be the seventh largest city in the state.

The prison population 15 years ago was approximately 5,000. The Southern Nevada Correctional Center opened in 1978. It was closed in 2000 to reduce costs in the state budget.

If it is reopened, it would cost the state about $8 million a year to operate, Crawford said.

"I thought this facility was worth salvaging," Crawford said. "We said, 'Let's do something really positive for the youth offenders.' "

Under Crawford's plan, the prison would house 525 to 575 inmates younger than 23 who are serving sentences of two to five years on average. They would be moved to Jean from High Desert State Prison and other prisons in the state.

No life-sentence inmates would be housed at Jean, Crawford said. In fact, inmates serving sentences of more than 10 years probably would not be allowed at Jean prison.

The main objective of the prison, besides easing the population of other prisons, would be to provide academic programs, vocational training for real-life job skills and counseling for addictions to substances like crystal methamphetamine.

"If we just lock them up then send them out, we will have a high recidivism rate," she said. "This will be a learning environment."

Some of the programs would be well-suited for Las Vegas inmates. Crawford said the prison would team-up with the Clark County School District and Community College of Southern Nevada to provide culinary and construction classes, both of which would be practical in Las Vegas should the inmate choose to reside in Clark County after they are released, she said.

While some prisons like High Desert State Prison have similar programs, many inmates cannot access them because of the high demand for the projects, Crawford said.

Several young inmates touring the Southern Nevada Correctional Center agreed. One, 19-year-old Larry Mingo, said he already has a high school diploma and wants to further his education so he can get a job when he leaves the prison system.

But because young inmates are not allowed to co-mingle with the adult population, and there are no post-high school classes available for incarcerated youth offenders at High Desert State Prison, he is left without an education.

"I'm trying to get a trade," said Mingo, who is serving a two- to five-year sentence for robbing two women at gunpoint in downtown Las Vegas.

Gov. Kenny Guinn has already proposed $20 million in the budget to reopen the vacant prison, but the Assembly has yet to approve Crawford's plan.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, vice chairwoman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, said lawmakers need to get much more information on the program before they can decide.

"If it keeps us from having to build another prison, I'll take a look at it," Giunchigliani said Friday.

Guinn has already proposed a $58.5 million addition to the High Desert State Prison so it can house an additional 600 inmates.

Another inmate who was impressed with the Southern Nevada Correctional Center was 20-year-old Michael Lee, who is serving a six- to 30-year sentence for a series of armed robberies -- 12 by his count.

He was amazed at the various facilities in the small, two-man cells at the prison, such as the light switch on the wall. At High Desert State Prison, where he is serving his sentence, the inmates cannot control when lights are turned on or off, he said.

Most of all, he liked the window in the cell.

"It's nice to have the window and be able to look at something," he said.