Cutting prison expenses could help education

Thursday, Feb. 15, 2007 | 7:17 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Assembly Democrats, looking for more money for education, hope that changing the criminal sentencing laws and some state prison operations could provide it.

And they have found allies in former Chief Justice Bob Rose and Associate Justice James Hardesty of the Nevada Supreme Court.

Rose and Hardesty appeared before the new Assembly Committee on Corrections, Parole and Probation to outline ways that millions of dollars could be saved.

Hardesty pointed out that if only half of the 1,039 illegal immigrants in the prison were released to the federal government to deport, the state could save $10 million.

Rose said District Court judges should have discretion, rather than being bound by mandatory minimum sentences. Now, judges cannot tailor a sentence to fit the crime.

Saying some penalties are "too severe and too long," Rose recommended that greater emphasis be placed on rehabilitation.

"Separate and apart from our dissatisfaction with the amount of money allocated for education is our concern about the growing prison population - whether we're being smart in the allocation of our dollars, whether we can be looking at various suggestions on nonviolent offenders and alternatives," said Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas.

She said possible changes could free up money that could be used for other needs such as education.

"There are a lot of state needs," she said.

Buckley said Assembly Democrats have been considering some of Rose and Hardesty's suggestions.

Assemblyman David Parks, D-Las Vegas, chairman of the corrections committee, said changes in sentencing and prison operations could generate "significant savings," perhaps reducing the Corrections Department's proposed $308 million operations budget by more than $40 million.

That would be a sizable portion of the extra $100 million a year that Assembly Democrats hope to spend on education beyond the $1.1 billion recommended by Gov. Jim Gibbons.

Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, said the budget committees must look not only at corrections but other proposed spending programs to divert as much money as possible to public schools.

There were 12,905 inmates - 1,000 more than budgeted for - in prison in Nevada this week. Prison officials say they need $30 million for expansion because the convicts are sleeping on the floor in gymnasiums.

But Hardesty said another way to free up more prison space - and save money - would be to place more inmates in residential confinement programs in the community. Only 126 inmates are enrolled in such programs, which can lower the cost of housing and supervising low-risk prisoners.

Drug court rehabilitation programs also could reduce prison populations and cost, he said.

Tough sentencing laws compound the problem, Rose said. Noting that Nevada's law on doubling the penalty if a weapon is used is the toughest in the nation, he said judges should have the discretion to reduce a weapons charge sentence if the circumstances merit doing so.

As an example, he cited the case of a 17-year-old convicted of murder who received a 20-year sentence for the murder and an additional 20 years on the weapons charge, even though he did not do the shooting or have the weapon in his possession.

"Judges will do the right thing" if they have sentencing discretion, Rose said.