Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005 | 10:52 a.m.
Inmates waiting to be taken to the forensic psychiatric facility in Sparks languish in the Clark County Detention Center without proper medical services because of the jail's transportation policies and a lack of a similar facility in Southern Nevada, state and county officials said.
For more than 20 years, the Detention Center has flown inmates about 450 miles to Lakes Crossing Center for the Mentally Disordered Offender and for the last eight years has contracted with Vision Air charter services to take inmates to and from Lakes Crossing.
The jail transported inmates by plane because it is faster than by bus or van and for security reasons, a Detention Center official said.
Yet rather than send Clark County inmates to Lakes Crossing when they are individually prepared to be transported, the county "bunches" them, waiting until it has three or more detainees, officials said. This leads to further delays of services, officials said.
Lakes Crossing is also at the center of a recently filed federal lawsuit that alleges inmates often linger in jails because the facility will not grant them entry to the hospital.
"If there is a single bed open, the county would not send someone up immediately," said Dr. Elizabeth Neighbors, director of Lakes Crossing. "It's costly and time consuming. It's easier when you have more people -- but it does cause some delays."
Capt. Mikel Holt of the jail's staff operations bureau -- which includes transportation of inmates -- said that in the past, the jail almost always waited until there were three or more inmates waiting to be transferred to or from Lakes Crossing before it would move them.
However, he said that policy is currently being changed because the jail believed it was a "roadblock" to getting inmates to Lakes Crossing.
"We don't want to be perceived as being part of the problem," he said.
The jail is now prepared to take inmates individually to Lakes Crossing by plane, and will do so in the future, he said.
"If (Lakes Crossing) tells us they have a bed, we will start the process," he said. "If they call me today, we'll do it."
But some Clark County officials say that it is not the bunching of inmates but the lack of bed space at Lakes Crossing, combined with the lack of similar facility in Southern Nevada, that are leading to the delays.
"They don't have the availability of beds," said Paul Martin, director of the Clark County Detention Center.
District Judge Jackie Glass, one of two judges who presides over the mental health court, agreed with Martin.
"The major issue causing the delay (of inmates to Lakes Crossing) is that there is no forensic mental health facility in Southern Nevada and, because there are 415 miles between our jail and Lakes Crossing, Clark County is faced with the transportation and all of its associated problems," she wrote via e-mail.
Getting inmates in and out of Lakes Crossing in a timely manner has been an issue in recent years. In June the Nevada Disability Advocacy Law Center filed a suit in federal court alleging that inmates in jails routinely spend weeks and even months waiting to gain entry into Lakes Crossing because the hospital won't allow them to be taken to Sparks.
The suit alleges that state officials have violated inmates' due process rights by not allowing them entry into Lakes Crossing, which results in inmates not receiving restorative mental health treatment and not proceeding through the court system.
Lakes Crossing is used to treat inmates who are not competent to aid in their own defense due to mental disorders. There are 48 beds at the facility, and about 22 inmates are now waiting to get in, officials said. Twenty of the 22 waiting are in Southern Nevada jails, officials said.
Carlos Brandenburg, administrator of the state Mental Health and Developmental Services Division, which oversees Lakes Crossing, said Clark County's practice of bunching inmates also affects the number of beds available at Lakes Crossing because, in some cases, the county has waited upward of 60 days before bringing an inmate back from Lakes Crossing.
One inmate could be determined to be competent in May, another in June and finally a third in July before all three detainees are returned, he said.
"It's been a common practice for a long time," he said, adding that county and state officials were working on the issue.
However, Martin said the delays happen because there is no bed space at the facility.
"(Brandenburg) is wrong -- it's supply and demand," Martin said. "We can't get a bed."
The county's statistics show that, on average, the Detention Center transported between four and five inmates per trip during the year. Martin said it cost, on average, about $3,640 per trip.
From fiscal year 2004 to 2005, the county jail spent $43,605 on transportation costs for inmates to Lakes Crossing. A total of 52 inmates were transported in 13 trips, he said.
In 2003 to 2004, 61 inmates were transported 11 times during the year, he said, for a total cost of $21,253. It cost more in 2004 because the charter service, Vision Air, began using a larger airplane, he said.
From fiscal year 2002 to 2003, the Detention Center spent $26,580 on 15 trips, with a total of 61 inmates being flown north, Martin said.
Larry Siggelkow, Vision Air chief operating officer, said his company has had the contract to transport inmates for at least eight years. He said the company uses a twin engine turbo-prop airplane that seats 19.
Siggelkow declined to comment further.
Martin maintained that the county would never wait for months on end before sending an inmate to Lakes Crossing or bringing one back to Clark County.
"As soon as one is ready, then we call the airline," he said.
While there may be up to a week before the jail has completed processing an individual to go up to Lakes Crossing, he said it wouldn't take the 60 days that Brandenburg claims.
"We need to have mental health beds in Southern Nevada so we don't have to go north," Martin said.
Glass said that since Clark County has the largest population and because Northern Nevada is not facing a mental health crisis, it only makes sense to create a forensic facility in Southern Nevada.
"Due to our tremendous population growth, we have experienced a proportionate increase in the number of mentally ill, and therefore that is reflected in our jail population," she said.
"A forensic mental health facility is a critical judicial resource for justice in our community, and the longer an appropriate solution is delayed, the longer Clark County residents will suffer the consequences."
Although Southern Nevada is in need of a forensic mental health facility, Glass said it needs more bed space available at Lakes Crossing immediately. In that regard, she said with frustration that there is an empty building next door to Lakes Crossing that could potentially be used for overflow of inmates.
Neighbors said there is an open unit at the civil hospital next door to Lakes Crossing. The unit, while not in use, is not staffed or constructed as a maximum-security facility, as is needed for inmates housed at a facility such as Lakes Crossing.
Neighbors said there is a shortage of space at Lakes Crossing because there is a greater number of inmates who are being committed to the facility.
She said that since the lawsuit, officials at Lakes Crossing have been meeting with court, law and mental health officials throughout the state about the issue of space at the facility.
"We're all struggling with this," she said.
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