Prison director offers justifications for closure of old state prison

Closing Nevada State Prison is the most cost-effective alternative to save money this coming biennium, according to Director of Corrections Howard Skolnik.

He has said in the past closing NSP would save upwards of $18 million a year. But employees have protested the potential loss of some 200 jobs in Carson City.

Skolnik told the commission studying law enforcement, prisons and the judicial system Monday his department is doing everything possible to help those employees keep their jobs if they want to.

He said the staffing at NSP has already been reduced to about 170 by closing units and offering voluntary transfers to employees. He said NSP staff now have first right to vacant positions equivalent to their current position if they are willing to move to another institution.

He said closure of NSP is in his department's proposed budget for the coming two years.

He said the problem with the century old prison on Fifth Street is that more than 200 staff are needed to supervise a maximum population of 900 inmates.

At the much newer High Desert Correctional Center in southern Nevada, it takes only 122 staff to manage 1,200 inmates.

"As we have developed new designs for our cell houses, we have increased effectiveness per staff," he told the Commission on the Administration of Justice.

"NSP requires 15 officers to supervise 97 inmates in Unit 6," he said. "We can operate with eight officers at 300 inmates in one of the new units at High Desert."

Department finance officer Laurie Bagwell said the newer, more efficient design produces s significant savings in the annual cost of housing inmates. At NSP, she said, the cost is $19,000 to $20,000 a year per inmate.

The actual per-inmate cost for Fiscal Year 2008, she said, was $13,900 at High Desert. At NSP, the 2008 cost was $19,275 per inmate.

He said the new design allows for nearly 100 percent observation of what's happening in the unit. By comparison, at NSP, "you have to have an officer climb three or four flights of stairs and walk down to the end to see what's going on."

"There are a number of new efficiencies built in that weren't there 100 years ago," Skolnik said.

Skolnik said he is also proposing the closure of two more conservation camps because he has no other way to make the 14 percent reductions in general fund spending. Closing the camp in Pioche, he said, would cost 30 jobs in a town of just 800.

In addition, he said the Division of Forestry would lose some positions associated with the camp and its fire crews.

The other camp on the list to close is the Tonopah camp, which would also cost some jobs.

And he said it would mean in the case of a fire, inmate crews would have to be brought in to help fight it. He said he doesn't know whether bringing in inmate crews might exceed the savings from closing the camps.

Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.