Editorial: Shackled by a lack of space

Saturday, Oct. 22, 2005 | 10:39 a.m.

It is disturbing to imagine prisoners attacking guards in an overcrowded and understaffed jail. But the Clark County Detention Center's outgoing chief warned county commissioners such an uprising looms if the jail doesn't gain more space.

The center has 2,860 beds, but more than 3,400 detainees are held on a typical day, Chief of Detention Paul Martin told Clark County Commission members Tuesday. And a recent operational audit conducted by a California consultant shows the center's corrections officers listed a prisoner uprising among their top concerns.

The facility's guard-to-inmate ratio is 1-to-100, as opposed to the audit's recommended ratio of 1-to-64. The center needs 45 more guards to make up the difference, Martin said. With too few guards, taxpayers are paying $280,000 every two weeks in overtime pay.

Martin, who retires this month after serving 25 years with the county, asked commissioners to find a way to add 2,000 beds and more staff to the detention center over the next five years.

On a typical day, he said, about 250 overflow detainees are placed on military cots in barracks-style rooms. Another 300 are sent to beds the county rents in jails operated by North Las Vegas, Las Vegas and Henderson, costing county taxpayers about $20,000 a day. But, he noted, those jails also are running out of space.

To make room at the county's detention center, Martin said, criminals such as petty thieves and first-time drug offenders who should be serving time are instead set free because of overcrowding. But local American Civil Liberties Union members contend too many detainees are homeless people who are being kept because they are a community irritant, while people who actually are dangerous are freed.

The facts and figures Martin laid out for county officials this week are eye-opening. But there is more to consider before setting a course for a jail expansion that could cost taxpayers millions.

A detailed study of who is being detained is warranted to determine whether inmates have been needlessly jailed for minor offenses, while those who have committed more serious crimes are set free. And if it turns out there just isn't room, then county officials will need to start looking at options for expansion.