An industrial park in Storey County is preparing land and paperwork for a private prison.
The Tahoe Reno Industrial Center will seek a zoning change on about 550 acres of the park, according to its broker, Lance Gilman.
Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private prison company in the country, has said the 107,000-acre industrial park that takes up over half of Storey County is one the places it is considering for a new private prison.
It would hold up to 3,000 inmates and employ about 600 workers, according to the company.
The Storey County Planning Commission will not consider a permit for a private prison at its Jan. 15 meeting as was tentatively scheduled, according to the planning department. The item was taken off the agenda because an application for the permit was not finished.
Gilman said the industrial park is a great place for a private prison. It is home to large distribution centers for Walmart and others and has an open 160 square miles.
"Don't you think I can find a really nice canyon or meadow that won't interfere with anyone?" he said. "Hell, yes, I can."
Gilman said he can't say anything about Corrections Corp. under an agreement with the company, but the industrial park will be ready for a private prison as soon as possible.
The Corrections Corp. prison would be built in two phases on the southeast side of the industrial park near the corner of Portofino and Malta drives, according to paperwork filed with Storey County by the industrial park.
The buildings will be less than 35 feet tall and "similar in scale and appearance to a light industrial park or secondary school," according to the county records. A minimum 100-foot buffer zone would surround the patrolled prison along with double 12-foot security fences, records say.
Corrections Corp. would get inmates through a state or federal contract, said Louise Grant, a company representative.
The company has no contract and no definite schedule to start building the prison, however, she said.
Corrections Corp. managed the Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Facility in North Las Vegas from 1997 to 2004. It was the first private company to manage a Nevada prison.
The company did not renew a contract to continue managing the prison, saying medical care and other costs made it too expensive.
Nye County in December approved a federal detention center that the company will build and run in Pahrump.
Some residents and the Florida-based Private Corrections Institute criticized the plan during the company's two-year negotiations with the county.
Frank Smith of the institute said in an e-mail that the detention center will lack oversight and hurt Nye County.
But the project is supported by the county government and the "vast majority" of residents, according to Grant. She said the institute rallied a few people to spread "misinformation" about the company.
Storey County Commissioner Bob Kershaw said the idea of a private prison should be closely analyzed, but he is "keeping an open mind" about it.
The county needs to make sure it knows how the private prison would affect the county, he said. It could be good thing, he said, so people shouldn't turn Corrections Corp. away without hearing their plan first, he said.
- Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.