SUN EDITORIAL:

A terrible idea

Considering past failures with private prisons, state shouldn’t consider Rachel plan

Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008 | 2:14 a.m.

Nevada’s prison overcrowding problem could be eased with a private prison in the tiny town of Rachel, a developer says.

As Mike Trask reported in last Sunday’s Las Vegas Sun, Jim Toreson wants to turn the hamlet of about 65 people — best known as the sleepy settlement closest to the federal government’s not-so-secret Area 51 — into a bustling community built around a 2,000-bed prison.

That might interest the state bureaucrats trying to deal with prison overcrowding and Gov. Jim Gibbons, who loves to talk about privatizing government services. He likes to say that government would be better if it were run more like a business. That is music to the ears of the anti-government crowd, which will likely find merit in Toreson’s proposal.

However, anyone who thinks a private prison is a panacea hasn’t been paying attention. Only a few years ago Nevada turned over some of the operations of the prison system to private companies. Those companies were supposed to show the state how the prisons could be run more efficiently, saving taxpayers money.

That might have sounded great at the time, but it turned into a disaster.

For example, there were complaints that a women’s prison in North Las Vegas, built and operated by a private company, was deteriorating as the company complained it wasn’t making enough money. Inside the prison walls, things were grim as well — a guard impregnated a prisoner.

The state also had private companies run the medical program at the high-security prison in Ely as well as a youth corrections facility. The private companies’ promises of efficient, cost-effective operations never panned out.

In 2004 then-Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican, pulled the plug on the program, and the state took over operations at all of those facilities, leaving the taxpayers on the hook to clean up the private companies’ messes.

Nevada’s experience with private prisons is reason enough to not pursue the Rachel plan. To think otherwise is foolish.

Discussion: 6 comments so far…

By geezelouise

9/14/08 at 7:23 a.m.

Suggest removal

We don't need more prisons, we need treatment centers for the mentally ill and for substance abusers.

It's a lot less costly to treat the problems than to incarcerate them.

Let's stop wasting taxpayer dollars on what doesn't work, and try something that may actually solve the problem.
By Wolfpack

9/14/08 at 9:25 a.m.

Suggest removal

I am a part time resident of Rachel. This is the dumbest idea Toreson has ever had and he has had alot of them. There are no services at all besides a bar that serves some food out there, no gas or any kind of services at all. To expect to open a prison where 300-400 people are to be employed where there isn't even a mini-mart is insane. This project isn't about the state wanting another prison but about Toreson wanting to do something with the 1000 acres of land he has and him having to do something with it before the county takes away his water rights. How this idiot ever came into money is beyond me.
By neiman1

9/14/08 at 10:12 a.m.

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The only people fighting private prisons are unions worried they wont have control of the labor force. Private prisons are cheaper and less violent. Private prisons have less recitivism than public institutions. Private prisons benefit the taxpayer, the economy, the prisoners, but are fought day and night by public employee unions and other labor groups. Take Nevada away from Harry Reid and the labor bosses. Make Nevada a free state again.
By jtoreson

9/29/08 at 10:08 a.m.

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This editorial is fatally flawed. The Rachel project is based on out of state offenders. Moreover, Nevada does not have a program for outsourcing prisoners to private prisons in Nevada. The editorial staff of the Las Vegas Sun should be ashamed of themselves for such sloppy jounalism. Also, the articles on this subject that were previously published and written by Mr. Trask also were laden with statements that were factually incorrect. If you have any respect for your newspaper, you should correct this by publishing a article correcting these mistruths. James S. Toreson
By jtoreson

9/29/08 at 10:25 a.m.

Suggest removal

The comment by Wolfpack shows his/her ingnorace regarding this matter. In particular, Toreson Industries has 100 acres of commercial property for retail shops and 84 acres of multifamily property for workforce housing. See www.toreson.com. We intend on (and completed feasibility studies on) importing the workforce from Las Vegas for The Lincoln Center for Restorative Justice and the retail shops needed for infrastructure, which together will create over 400 jobs. Regarding water rights; he also shows his/her ignorance since they are not administered by the County, but rather, the Nevada Department of Water Resources http://water.nv.gov/. Wolfpack should also control his/her slanderous remarks. James S. Toreson
By jtoreson

9/29/08 at 10:41 a.m.

Suggest removal

I totally agree with the comments of geezelouise, that is why the Rachel project, if allowed to proceed, is going to focus on rehabilitaion, following California's new program under its new law AB900. See http://www.cce.csus.edu/conferences/oig/.... Our project will be named "The Lincoln Center for Restorative Justice" and will have a faith-based component and a University based "Criminal Justice" component. The goal is to reduce recidivism from two thirds to less that one third. This program is humane, cost effective, safe, and in keeping with all spiritual teachings. James S. Toreson

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