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StumbleExpansion will nearly double size of Henderson jail
City hopes housing inmates from other jurisdictions will make it money
Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Sun
Henderson Police Chief Jutta Chambers welcomes guests to the groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of the Henderson Detention Center Wednesday.
Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010 | 1:43 p.m.
Henderson Detention Center
The city of Henderson broke ground Wednesday morning on an addition to its detention center that will nearly double the number of beds available for inmates.
The $29 million addition is expected to make money for the city in the long run, Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen said. He said the project would help Southern Nevada deal with any overflow of inmates.
“Which we will gladly take, and gladly charge them,” Hafen said.
The current Henderson Detention Center, at 243 South Water St., was built in 1994 and has 293 beds. The addition will bring the number of beds to 543.
Todd Rasmussen, of the Henderson Police Department, said the addition is expected to bring the city about $6 million each year after it’s built. The money will be placed into the city’s general fund.
The project will take about 1 ½ years to complete. Planning for the addition has been going on for about five years.
Henderson rents rooms to inmates who don’t fit into other detention centers, Henderson Police Chief Jutta Chambers said. The Henderson Detention Center houses inmates who were arrested by Henderson Police, the U.S. Marshals Service, Metro Police and the Boulder City Police Department.
The going rate for a bed is about $100 per night, Chambers said – money that other jurisdictions will pay to Henderson for the city to house its inmates.
Metro Police spokesman Bill Cassell said this afternoon there currently are 28 inmates held in Henderson who couldn't be held in Metro's facilities.
There are 46 others being tried in Clark County who are in Henderson's detention center on remand -- meaning they were held in Henderson at the time their case was transferred to Clark County District Court, and were left there.
In both cases (remand and overflow), Metro pays the approximately $100 nightly fee.
"Any time there is additional bed space available, it is a plus," Cassell said. "We never know when there's going to be some sort of problem," he said, such as a fire or a power outage, which would cause inmates to need to move from one location to another.
Because Boulder City doesn’t have its own detention center, Henderson also houses its inmates. Boulder City Police Chief Tom Finn said his inmates have never been turned away from the Henderson facility.
Chambers said the city hopes to add the space now to meet demand before it becomes a problem in the future. On the rainy Wednesday morning, she likened it to water in the desert – it doesn’t become a problem until it is truly scarce, she said.
“The criminal justice system always needs bed space,” she said. “We’re trying to get out ahead of the curve.”
Regular rooms in the new area will be 12-feet by 7-feet, with handicap rooms measuring 12-feet by 7.5-feet. Each regular room will have two beds, set up as bunks, a toilet, sink and a small table.
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Can't understand celebrating the opening of a jail. Pathetic
IDIOTS, how about building a school. They should throw themselves in jail for being moronic. My child has 35 kids in her class at Lamping. If they added a teacher or built a school we wouldnt be building jails for our kids future.
To denniso482:
Wait till the conservatives get done with gutting state education on all levels, your 35 pupil class will seem like a small gathering.
After schools and education get gutted, then comes any social services and then on to the highway department and closing prisons.........it will be just like the Nevada of 1877 again!!!
If they don't build new jails, where are they going to put the criminals . . . back on the streets?
Didn't they do an expansion a year and a half ago??
They better build it much much bigger, if there are no jobs there will be more crime people must eat.
This is a very good idea. Jails.
Quit wasting money on schools. They ain't nothin' more than warehouses for all the illegal aliens and their anchor baby offspring.
And the test scores are at the bottom, anyhow.
Jails are the right idea, actually.
Then the idiots that end up there finally will have an interest in getting an education.
Just one more thing.
Build a few extra rooms for the Politicos that are in deep with the 'donators' and 'fraudsters'. I have a sneaky suspicion there will be quite a few more convictions on the way....
'The going rate for a bed is about $100 per night, Chambers said -- money that other jurisdictions will pay to Henderson for the city to house its inmates.'
This is why it would be good to consolidate the jurisdictions. Probably wouldn't have spent the money to build a jail expansion if Henderson wasn't going to profit from it.
Henderson is making a good move on this one. Build it now and rent it out to other municipalities. Let them pay for the facility over the long term and it is always there if Henderson should need it.
Bertsos: There are plenty of children educated in home schools and the statistics show that they are better educated and test higher than their public school counterparts. So how does this factor into your drum-beating about class size. And further, my father went to school in a one-room schoolhouse where the older kids were responsible for helping the lower grades. He turned out ok, 20 year veteran and small business owner.
Government doesn't owe your kids an education. Get over it. If a kid wants to learn no class size will stop him or her from doing so. If they don't then there's no class size that will change that feeling.
And yes, we shouldn't be celebrating the construction of detention facilities. Only whacked out government employees celebrate these macabre things. They actually think building more jails is progress. I guess that's why they call them "progressives."
How about building better citizens first?
"If they don't build new jails, where are they going to put the criminals . . . back on the streets?"
Pianist -- instead how about We the People stop letting them make criminals? It's time we started acting like citizens and take back our governments, including the courts.
Don't know about the rest of you, but the pic of Henderson' chief cop doesn't exactly inspire confidence in this citizen.
Would it not be cheaper to house them at the Plaza,, since they have discounted rooms.......For a $100 a night they can pitch some tents in my backyard and keep a few of them there...Bologny and Oatmeal doesnt cost alot to feed them and you can get a tax break im sure.....
..To "KillerB"...its always a breath of fresh air to read your posts....
Always nice to know we have a real hero among us.....Thanks, Tarzan....
Henderson...Now it is almost official they are a clear cut "Police State"only 2nd to a 1939Germany when are people going to relize that the city of Henderson is outta control?Thank god for Metro a real law enforcement agency that is out for those they serve the community and not for some out of control border line communist leaders that Henderson has..I would rather take a patrol car ride with Metro than drive thru Henderson and worry about getting the same treatment as if I was pulled over by the Gestapo in communist russia..just ask any ice cream vendor..
P.S..KillerB ur dead on buddy..Henderson does have "Kangaroo"courts to back their gestapo..Like the lovely ex-stripper judge who oversees criminal cases while married to a HPD Sargent n preaches morals while being a hypocytite about her past..:)
I guess Hendeson is trying for some "GITMO" action...Since they feel it would be a for like experince that they been getting in Cuba now..