Prison too expensive to replace but too expensive to maintain

By Cy Ryan

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

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.