Nevada panel considers drug-testing inmates before parole

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -- A plan to drug-test Nevada prison inmates before parole hearings prompted questions Tuesday about budget cuts for similar tests for parolees already on the street.

AB209 would mandate drug tests for inmates within 30 days of their parole hearings. The Nevada Parole Board conducts about 7,300 hearings every year, and grants nearly a third of the requests.

Assembly Judiciary Committee members, told that AB209 would cost more than $65,000 in the next two fiscal years, asked about budget cuts that will slash about $50,000 from a Division of Parole and Probation drug-testing program for parolees in the same period.

Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said the additional cost for testing prison inmates isn't consistent with the reduced testing for parolees.

Assemblyman Josh Griffin, R-Las Vegas, who is sponsoring the bill, agreed, saying, "I think that we will be paying far more down the road by cutting (the parole-probation) budget now."

But Griffin also said his AB209 focuses on illicit drug use inside prison walls.

Rex Reed, administrator of the offender management division for the Nevada Department of Corrections, said about 5 percent of the state's prison inmates face random monthly tests for drug use, and about 2 percent of those tests come up positive.

Reed said he expects total inmate drug use would be consistent with the number of positives from the random tests -- and he also expects that inmates would curb their drug use as their parole hearing approaches.

Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas, questioned the public policy decision of spending more money on drug testing inmates while the state spends about 1 percent of its corrections budget on programming, such as drug treatment.

Launa Hall, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas social work student, testified against AB209, saying drug addiction should be treated more like an illness than a crime. Keeping drug addicts in prison wouldn't do them any good, she added.

"I don't see how this is going to effectively address the root cause of drug use in prisons," Hall said.

Judiciary Chairman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, said similar proposals have passed his committee in the past, but didn't win eventual approval from the full Legislature.