LOOKING IN ON: CARSON CITY

Friday, Nov. 24, 2006 | 7:03 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Gov.-elect Jim Gibbons will name his transition team next week to help him prepare for taking the reins of state government on Jan. 1.

Brent Boynton, Gibbons' director of communications, said the team will include both people in government and in the private sector.

One of the team's major tasks will be to recommend policy priorities and identify potential appointees to serve in the Gibbons administration.

Boynton said Gibbons also is putting together a team to plan inaugural balls to be held in Las Vegas and Reno. No dates or locations have been selected.

State Treasurer Brian Krolicki has been cleared by a state Ethics Commission panel of charges that he used inappropriate funds for advertising in his successful campaign for lieutenant governor.

A complaint filed by voter Anita Hara charged that Krolicki used television, radio and print advertising for the College Savings Plan of Nevada and the Nevada Prepaid Tuition program to further his political campaign.

A two-person ethics panel, however, found no evidence to back up the allegations and dismissed the complaint.

Hara argued that the ads did more to promote Krolicki than push the merits of the two college financing plans. She also claimed that the TV ads did not begin until Krolicki announced his campaign for lieutenant governor.

Pat Hearn, executive director of the Nevada Commission on Ethics, said his investigation found that the ads in fact started four years ago and that the TV commercials stopped in March.

No state general funds were used in the ads, Hearn said. In addition, he noted that the direct mail ads went out in April and June of 2005 and 2006 to coincide with the filing of federal income taxes and graduation.

Krolicki's responsibility to market the programs, Hearn concluded, justified the use of governmental equipment and time in preparing and distributing the ads.

Nevada prisons "do a good job of protecting the public" but "a lousy job of changing behavior."

That's the view of Assemblyman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, vice chairman of a new Assembly Select Committee on Corrections, Parole and Probation.

Anderson said although Nevada is spending considerable money to build prisons, it is shortchanging rehabilitation programs.

Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, in line to become speaker of the Assembly in February, said the new committee is intended to, among other things, examine punishment alternatives in nonviolent crimes as a way of dealing with the growing prison population.

Assemblyman David Parks, D-Las Vegas, who asked Buckley to create the committee, said there was evidence that shortening prison sentences has not increased the recidivism rate.

Figures from the state Parole and Probation Division show that 77 percent of inmates released from prison successfully complied with the terms of their parole in 2005, a figure that has risen to 80 percent to date.

A study committee that examined the state's corrections system has recommended that people convicted of minor crimes serve only minimum sentences, unless they are considered dangerous.

Three new prisons, each averaging 1,500 inmates, are to be built between now and 2015.

The penal system, Anderson warns, could become the "No. 1 state dollar spender."

"If we don't get a handle on it, it's going to be runaway bureaucracy," he said.

The study committee also heard complaints from the public that vocational and educational programs may not be available to all prisoners, especially females, and that prisons' counseling and mental health programs are insufficient.