County sees possible savings in delay of auxiliary jail

By Joe Schoenmann

Published Friday, March 13, 2009 | 2:59 p.m.

Updated Friday, March 13, 2009 | 6 p.m.

Clark County officials are considering postponing the opening of an expensive auxiliary jail intended to house low-level criminals.

At the urging of Metro Police, the county entered into a build/lease agreement with Molasky Group in fall 2007 for an $128 million facility with about 1,000 beds for non-violent inmates. It is located on 17 acres near Nellis Air Force Base, at the northeast corner of Sloan Lane and Las Vegas Boulevard.

The county will pay Molasky $11.35 million a year, a cost that will increase 6 percent every two years for a total of $528 million over 30 years. The county also has the option to buy the facility at market prices after 10 years. That, though, would be akin to buying the facility twice, since the county will have made roughly $110 million in lease payments by then.

Richard Worthington, Molasky Group of Cos. president, said the 1,078-bed facility will be done in June and the county will begin making lease payments July 1. The first month’s lease payment is to be $945,661.

The original plan was to open 500 beds in December 2009, but the county is considering not opening any beds there until next fiscal year.

That would allow the county to hold off on enrolling 46 corrections officer candidates in a May 2009 law enforcement academy, and hold off on hiring another 79 civilian positions. That would save $13.11 million in fiscal year 2010.

The plan also would use the 90 corrections officers who were hired in anticipation of the opening of the new detention site to offset overtime costs at the county jail downtown. Forty of those officers are already working at the county jail, and 50 are in the academy. Once they are all working at Clark County Detention Center, that will reduce the jail’s overtime request for fiscal 2010 to $1.79 million in place of its current $10.05 million, county officials said.

A report to the County Commission next week will say that the average daily population at the Clark County Detention Center has fallen 4.6 percent from its record levels in 2007. It still has plenty of inmates, though. It is supposed to house 2,984 inmates. In January 2009 the average daily population at the county jail was 3,031, putting it 47 inmates over its rated capacity. Clark County also had an average of 339 inmates in beds rented at the city jails around the valley and in Lincoln County.

In fiscal year 2007, the average daily in-custody population at the county jails and its leased beds in the other jurisdictions was 3,582. In fiscal year 2008, the average dropped to 3,416. In fiscal year 2009 to date, the average is holding at 3,419.