Las Vegas Sun

June 4, 2012

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Sun editorial:

Budget cut victim

Belt-tightening at state Parole and Probation Division a blow to public safety

Thursday, Oct. 9, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

The Nevada Parole and Probation Division plays a critical role in ensuring public safety by monitoring criminal offenders who were sentenced to probation and convicted felons who have been paroled from prison. That means making sure supervised individuals receive substance abuse treatment, attend work or job training, and fulfill other conditions of their release.

Loosening that supervision could spell disaster for the public. A probationer or parolee can easily slip back into criminal activity, sometimes with deadly consequences.

That is why it was disturbing to learn from a Wednesday story by Cy Ryan in the Las Vegas Sun that the division is feeling the pinch of state budget cuts, joining a long list of state agencies and programs that have already been reduced to skeleton operations.

Public Safety Department spokesman Dan Burns said parolees and probationers will still be supervised, but we’re not confident the quality or frequency of that supervision will be adequate.

Ryan reported that on Sept. 20 the division began to limit each of its 201 vehicles to 700 miles a month. When Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, learned of that policy she termed it “disturbing news.” She had been informed that a quarter of the division’s vehicles had reached their mileage limits by Oct. 2 and cannot be driven again until Oct. 19.

The absurdity of this is that the division’s officers may be forced to double up and share a car if they’re traveling in the same neighborhood, Burns said. You could have one officer waiting in the car while his colleague conducts a visit. Even assuming that both officers are conducting visits in the neighborhood at the same time, it is certain to lead to situations where one officer is finished before the other and is stuck with idle time.

Buildup of idle time will be compounded by the fact that the division, which is authorized to have 532 positions, has 92 vacancies and is short-handed. It’s no surprise, then, that the division will seek an emergency appropriation when the Legislative Interim Finance Committee meets Nov. 20.

Memo to Gov. Jim Gibbons: This is what happens when you cut to the bone.

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