Las Vegas Sun

November 22, 2009

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Proposal to close halfway houses won’t be presented

President of corrections association says his plan would eliminate need for furloughs

By Cy Ryan (contact)

Friday, Oct. 23, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Howard Skolnik

Howard Skolnik

Sun Archives

Prison officials have spent the past few months trying to trim costs without forcing employees to take monthly furloughs, which they argue would endanger prison guards and inmates.

Now the president of a group of state correctional officers has recommended closing halfway houses to achieve budget savings.

Gene Columbus, head of the Nevada Corrections Association, wants to see closed the Casa Grande Transition Center in Las Vegas, which has a two-year budget of $4.9 million. The center has a capacity of 398 inmates but houses only 243, he said.

The Northern Nevada Restitution Center in Reno could also be closed, according to Columbus. It has a budget of $1.5 million and houses 53 inmates.

Columbus said the prisoners at these two centers could be transferred to minimum security camps.

Howard Skolnik, director of the state Department of Corrections, will present a plan to cut prison system costs without furloughs to the state Board of Examiners next month. But Skolnik said his plan won’t include closing the two centers, which he said have been successful in preparing inmates to return to society.

Skolnik said a majority of the budget for the Casa Grande Transition Center goes to pay off a 20-year loan to the contractor who built the facility. The state is negotiating to transfer the land at the Reno center to a group that would build a new facility at no cost to the state.

The Legislature directed that state workers take one day off a month without pay to help balance the slimmed-down budget.

•••

The community manager for two Clark County homeowners associations has been ordered by the state to pay $430,000 in restitution and fines in connection with his siphoning of HOA fees.

The Nevada Commission for Common-Interest Communities and Condominium Hotels revoked the manager’s license of Barry W. Floyd and ordered him to pay the Greenbriar Townhouse Owners Association $72,504 and Northshore Reflections Homeowners Association $87,842.

A separate state agency, the Real Estate Commission, also found that Floyd failed to account for cash and bank account withdrawals. It also found other violations, and fined him $270,000.

Elisabeth Daniels, spokeswoman for the state Department of Business and Industry, said the investigation showed the HOA money had been “inappropriately withdrawn” from the accounts of the two associations.

She said there is no accounting of what Floyd did with the money.

Floyd, who owned the Las Vegas-based Floyd Group, 3945 W. Reno Ave., did not respond to the state’s complaints against him.

•••

Today is the swan song for two key legislative fiscal advisers who shaped the state’s spending of billions of dollars over the past two decades.

Legislative Fiscal Analysts Mark Stevens, chief adviser to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, and Gary Ghiggeri, who held the same position for the Senate Finance Committee, are retiring.

The committees build the state’s biennial budgets.

“They drove us down the right path for the betterment of the state,” said Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, longtime chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

Many thorny money matters were hammered out behind closed doors with Stevens, Ghiggeri, Arberry and Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio present, Arberry said. Raggio, R-Reno, was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee until the 2009 Legislature.

Stevens joined the state in 1973 and went to work for the Legislature in 1982.

Ghiggeri began working for the state in 1971 and joined Legislature staff in 1984.

Discussion: 10 comments so far…

  1. By dwms
    10/23/09 at 2:58 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    Perhaps the new Legislative Fiscal Analysts will be accountable and budget for the numerous monetary judgments against State of Nevada which are court ordered by the federal courts. If not, the United States Supreme Court made a favorable ruling for us residents in the case of Las Vegas resident Lavoni T. Kidd. Government agents and their assets no longer enjoy immunity. We hereby NOTICE all government agents to not transfer, hide, or conceal public, private, and personal assets going forward. YOUR RIGHT!

  2. By geezelouise
    10/23/09 at 7:19 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    Closing Casa Grande is an unrealistic idea. It should house more parolees and provide services to assist them in finding jobs and gaining life skills to give them a better chance at becoming good citizens.

  3. By rejco100
    10/23/09 at 7:41 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    This place has been a COMPLETE FAILURE! Anything PRISON-LIKE for ex-prisoners is guaranteed to be a failure! Forced 12-Step Religious cult & Religious Evangelical Christianity Insanity permiates the air that most are choking to death!

    The same people that design these placed are the same that design the homeless systems: COMPLETE MULTI-GAZILLION TAXPAYER DOLLAR DISASTERS & FAILURES!

  4. By rejco100
    10/23/09 at 8:18 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    Get these guys REAL HOUSING, REAL TRADE/CAREER TRAINING, and REAL JOBS.

    NO MORE FAILED PROGRAM AFTER FAILED PROGRAMS AFTER MORE FAILED PROGRAMS AFTER EVEN MORE FAILED PROGRAM!

  5. By nvwilnd
    10/23/09 at 9:07 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    Casa Grande is a scam. They send inmates to downtown Las Vegas, exepcting them to find jobs in this economy. If they do find a job, they (the inmates) are taking a job from a free person. They are still inmates with few rights. I don't believe they should get a job before someone who has not committed a crime. Unemployment in Las Vegas is over 12% and the State of Nevada, Dept. of Corrections is adding another 243+ inmates into the mix of people looking for a job. CLOSE IT, FIRE Skolnik, and if he does not want his employees to take the MANDATED FURLOUGH like all the other State Employees have to, then CUT THIER WAGES 4.6%. Why is one group of State Employees different then any other State Employee?? They aren't. If Skolnik can't run his Department, FIRE HIM and get someone in there that can run it. The NHP was not granted a furlough, NDF was not granted a furlough, NDOT was not granted a furlough. The BOE needs to stop wasting time, make them take their furlough, or, cut their wages. Fair is fair. Lock the inmates down 23 hours a day 6 days a week, that whould give Skolnik enough correctional officers to do thier job. And for the prior posters who have inmates in the system, a reminder, THEY ARE INMATES...THEY SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN JOBS OVER A FREE PERSON. CLOSE CASA GRANDE, it was waste of money when it was built and it is still a waste of money....Jackie Crawford (who was the Director of NDOC prior to Skolnik) believed that inmates deserved to take jobs away from free people....the NDOC is a department that needs to be aduited from the TOP down.....

  6. By rejco100
    10/23/09 at 12:12 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    Did you know that even a non-criminal could not get through probation or parole; it designed for failure; keeps the taxpayer's money flowing to them.

  7. By wolf85023
    10/23/09 at 12:24 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    I vist Las Vegas 2 times a year.I see the same street people asking for money.They are drunks or on drugs.I ask the local and the say there is no hope for them.They get treatmeat and back out on the street and do what they no best(drugs).Its who you hang around with is who you will end up to be.
    CLEAN UP LAS VEGAS PLEASE

  8. By geezelouise
    10/23/09 at 7:47 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    nvwilnd-

    Whether you like it or not, they are getting out of prison someday. If they have served their time they have paid their debt. The deserve a job if they qualify for it.

    If you can't find a job, don't blame the inmates or parolees.

    Blame yourself.

  9. By nvwilnd
    10/23/09 at 9:06 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    geezlouise -

    They are still in prison, still convicted felons serving their time that they were sentenced to by the courts. They have NOT served all their time as required by the court system. They are still inmates, in the custody of the State of Nevada, Dept. of Corrections.
    Once they serve their sentence, you bet, come and look for a job, have at it. But while they are still wards of the State, and free people are looking for jobs, it is wrong!
    Casa Grande Transition Center has a two-year budget of $4.9 million.
    Do you know what the State could do with that money which would benefit much more then the staff and inmates of that scam......

  10. By geezelouise
    10/24/09 at 8:47 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    It might interest you to know that the original intent of Casa Grande was to house parolees that are transitioning from prison life to the streets.

    It also might interest you to know that we pay approx 25K to incarcerate and 2K to parole per year.

    Do you know what the state could do with that money if the actually paroled all those who are eligible? 23K per person. That is a lot of money that could go towards education, roads, etc...

    The DOC does nothing but waste money. It is a large money pit - second largest budget in the state.

    All to house 85% non violent offenders who have drug problems or mental illnesses that aren't treated.

    Seems to me to be a HUGE waste of our tax dollars and state resources.

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