Role of human error doesn’t escape new prison design

By Cy Ryan

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008 | 2 a.m.

The head of the state prison system said he’s willing to stake his career on the design for a proposed Southern Nevada prison that would be built without guard towers.

“Fencing is more effective than towers,” prisons chief Howard Skolnik told the state Public Works Board on Tuesday. “Every escape has been the result of human error.”

The fences would be equipped with technology that would detect an inmate approaching or touching the barrier and alert guards, Skolnik said. The fences aren’t electrified; “they don’t kill,” he said.

The design, similar to that being used in other states, eliminates the human error that has led to every escape from a Nevada prison since Skolnik has been with the Corrections Department, he said.

The prison system is asking for $286.5 million to build a 1,500-inmate facility at Indian Springs, and a total of $464.4 million over the next two fiscal years for construction.

The Public Works Board on Tuesday opened two days of hearings on $1.4 billion in construction requests from state agencies for fiscal 2010 and 2011. Of the amount requested, $1 billion would have to be financed by the state, with the rest coming from federal, private or other funds.

Renny Ashleman, chairman of the Public Works Board, questioned the need for a new 1,500-inmate prison. Past prison population estimates have been inaccurate because of fluctuations, he said.

Skolnik said the state’s prisons are “stuffed” with inmates sleeping in day rooms. Prison population estimates “generally have been too low,” he said. “We feel strongly it must be constructed on schedule.”

Authorities would carry out executions at the proposed prison. Executions are now done at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City, but there is talk of closing the prison, which is more than a century old.

Maud Naroll, chief planning assistant for the state Budget Division, told the board there won’t be any cash available for construction projects because of the economic downturn, but about $495 million in bonding capacity could be tapped.

The proposed prison would consume all of the $263 million in bonding capacity available in 2010, Naroll said.

The prison system’s request and a request from the Nevada Higher Education System, for $307 million, make up the bulk of the proposed construction projects.

Skolnik said among his top priorities is planning for a women’s prison at Indian Springs, which would allow the department to turn the Florence McClure women’s prison in North Las Vegas into a facility for elderly and disabled inmates. There is a growing number of senior inmates and the McClure prison is equipped to accommodate the aged and disabled, he said.

Planning for a women’s prison, which would include six housing units, would require $7.1 million.

The Public Works Board will submit its recommendations to Gov. Jim Gibbons.