Editorial: Crime and punishment

Monday, Sept. 12, 2005 | 9:01 a.m.

An argument can be made that nonviolent offenders such as prostitutes and graffiti vandals should not be sentenced to jail time, as the money spent to house them is not justified in light of their minor threat to society. This may be true when talking of their first or second offenses, but what about their third, fourth and fifth offenses, and offenses after that? Multiple offenses, committed by petty offenders who face no real consequences, are growing common in Clark County and the sheriff and County Commission chairman have a plan to deal with the problem.

The reason that minor offenders continually get off with no more than a fine is because the Clark County Detention Center, built to house 2,860 inmates, is perpetually overcrowded. There is no money in the county budget now, or in the near future, to add on to the jail or build a new one. So Sheriff Bill Young and County Commission Chairman Rory Reid are recommending that a temporary, 400-bed jail be built on the grounds of the county's sewage treatment plant, off Vegas Valley Drive and Flamingo Road.

While there is no clear vision yet of what this modular jail would look like, it could be on the order of a tent-like structure, divided into individual dormitory-style rooms. There the petty offenders, being held for days, weeks or possibly months, would learn there are harsher consequences for their illegal behaviors than fines.

We support the concept as proposed by Young and Reid. Without such a facility, offenders, as they have amply demonstrated, will continue to break the law and lower the quality of life in Las Vegas.