Prison too expensive to replace but too expensive to maintain

Tuesday, July 22, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Carson City — Guard towers sway in high winds. The water pipes leak. And some toilets can be broken into pieces and fashioned into weapons by inmates.

Nevada State Prison, among the oldest prisons operating in the United States, is in bad shape and it would cost untold millions to fix, according to a recent 104-page study by the state Public Works Board.

It appears to be only a matter of time before a decision is reached to abandon the prison two miles from downtown Carson City.

Howard Skolnik, director of the state Prisons Department, proposed closing it during the most recent wave of state budget cuts, saying it would save $19 million a year.

Gov. Jim Gibbons decided against it at the time. The governor’s spokesman, Ben Kieckhefer, said recently a “decision is still up in the air.”

“There would be a loss of jobs (if it were closed) and the governor wants to avoid that at all costs,” said Kieckhefer. The prison board, the Legislature and the governor must together figure out what to do with the facility, he said.

Secretary of State Ross Miller, a member of the state Prison Commission, said a long-range plan for closure is needed, including how to accommodate its 960 inmates while the prison is replaced or rebuilt.

The 2007 Legislature approved $322 million for prison construction and improvements. All of the major new construction would be in Southern Nevada. But Miller said some of it could be moved to Northern Nevada to preserve the jobs of the correctional officers there if the Carson City prison were closed.

The Legislature purchased the Warm Springs Hotel, and 20 acres for the prison, in 1864. It was Nevada’s only prison for 100 years. Death Row inmates are housed in the maximum security prison in Ely, but executions are still carried out in the main building at the Carson City prison.

Because of the facility’s age, maintenance costs have risen sharply. Generally when the annual cost of maintenance exceeds 60 percent of the value of the buildings themselves, it’s time to consider shutting down a facility, Kieckhefer said, and the prison is approaching that level.

In the main building, the 50-year-old water lines are deteriorating and starting to leak. “A break in the pipe has the potential to short out the power supply, the alarm system, flood the lowest levels of the building and present a safety hazard,” the report says.

There’s no security camera or video-recording system in much of the main building. Prison staff cannot monitor the inmates or record an incident in these areas, according to the report.

A new security camera system would cost $500,000. The cost of replacing the entire main building is estimated at $37.1 million.

That’s one option, Skolnik says.

The old, abandoned home for the warden, outside the main prison yard, has broken windows and is infested with pigeons and rodents. It should be boarded up and demolished, but the replacement cost of the 1957 structure is $1 million, the report states.

One of the cell blocks, built in 1981, needs fire sprinklers and to be brought into compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The toilets, which are made of porcelain, are broken, and inmates are able to fashion weapons from the pieces. The Public Works board said they should be replaced with stainless steel toilets at an estimated cost of $188,000.

The guard towers on the perimeter of the prison “sway substantially during high winds” and a licensed engineer should assess their structural integrity, according to the report.

An old tunnel that is infested with snakes, spiders and rats runs beneath a part of the prison yard. It has been sealed but “is not structurally safe and can collapse without warning,” according to the report.

Discussion: 8 comments so far…

By lrooff

7/22/08 at 11:03 a.m.

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The cost of running a prison system has gotten out of hand, and I would suggest that the answer is to stop using prisons as the punishment of choice and use them, instead, as a punishment of last resort when lesser punishments such as intensive community supervision have failed. Additionally, we're imposing far longer sentences than any other western democracy, and using shorter terms of imprisonment would free up a lot of room in existing facilities. In other words, much of the problem is that we have too many people in prison for too long. It may satisfy our need for revenge, but that doesn't make it good social policy and it's not in our long-term interests to be able to boast of the worst prison system in the free world.
By UNLVStud

7/22/08 at 7 p.m.

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If more money was spent on educating kids and making sure they stayed in school, there would be no need for the facility. I'm reminded of the often cited statistic that it takes five times more money to house an inmate than to educate that same person who then would be three times less likely to offend at all.

Obviously the money would be better spent on education and not on more prisons.
By 2wheelsdaily

7/23/08 at 12:32 a.m.

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Decriminalize marijuana and the prison population will drop by over 30%.
By odog

7/23/08 at 7:28 a.m.

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Call in Sheriff Joe Apaio to train and set up tent citiies. Feed the prisoners for under $2 per person. Make all prisoners work for their room and board.
By mikeg

7/23/08 at 8:30 a.m.

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If I were a homeless vagrant, I would rob a bank. Then if you get away you have the money, or if you're caught, you get to live in one of these fancy new prisons they're building for the rest of your life. They need to make new prisons that are less fancy and more bare and basic, with no TV and bland food, to serve as a greater punishment for people to avoid committing crimes.
By geezelouise

7/24/08 at 7:58 p.m.

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ODOG AND MIKEG,

Neither one of you has a clue what you are talking about. Prisoners do work for their room and board, and there are no FANCY prisons in Nevada.

It would be wise to have a clue about an issue before you lend your opinion.
By VegasQuixote

7/25/08 at 1:05 p.m.

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Ideas for downsizing prisons are available in the right column of my blog at vegasquixote.blogspot.com
By jfnance32

7/25/08 at 2:05 p.m.

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I think many of you have no clue on how the criminal justice system works.

There are federal criminal courts and state/local criminal courts. You never want to be a target of a federal criminal court system. They have unlimited funds and strict punishment guidelines. They do not mess around.

In state/local courts, you have to get convicted of non violent felonies at least 4 to 6 times before you go to state prison. I know this person who stole a car, got convicted, got probation. A year later, stole a car, got convicted got probation. A year later, still the same thing.

I know somebody that got convicted of breaking into over 20 homes and got probation.

If you go to state prison, then it is usually for a violent crime or a crime involving carrying a weapon or you a repeat offender, like over 4 to 6 convictions.

As for "If more money was spent on educating kids " that is silly. Money on education and crime have no coorelation at all. Almost every year spending on education in every state in the union has outpaced inflation and population growth. Crime goes up and down without regard to this spending.

If we had religious teaching in school then that would have a big impact on future crime. That will never happen.

The only thing that has an effect on crime in the last 50 years is abortion. When abortion was made legal then 15 to 20 years later there was a big drop in crime. Crime level has remained at that level since that drop.