Nevada's incarceration rate down

Nevada, like other states, has seen an increase in numbers of criminals locked up in prisons and jails. But a new national study shows the state, which once had the nation's highest incarceration rate, has dropped to 14th place in its percentage of adults behind bars.

A detailed Pew Center on the States report, based on 2007 and 2008 data, shows the total population of the U.S. corrections system now exceeds 7.3 million, or one in every 31 U.S. adults. For Nevada's corrections system, the comparable total is about 40,000 either in prison or jail or on parole or probation. That's one in every 48 adults.

A breakdown of the Nevada total shows that just over half of the 40,000 are locked up in prisons or jails, or one out of every 89 adult residents in the state.

That puts Nevada in 14th place nationally, according to the Pew Center report released Monday.

"We look pretty good," Nevada Corrections Director Howard Skolnik said in discussing the report. "For years, we were No. 1 in incarceration rates in the United States, and we've moved down to 14th place. Clearly, some of the policies we are putting into place to reduce the inmate population are working."

"We are in the bottom fifth of the states in terms of total rate of criminal justice system involvement," Skolnik added. "I think that says an awful lot about what's going on in the state. ... We have improved dramatically in terms of our rates " either that or the rest of the country has gone to hell."

Nevada's one-in-48-adults ranking in total corrections population compares with one in 13 adults in Georgia at one end of the scale, and one of every 88 adults in New Hampshire at the other end.

The Pew report notes that construction of new prisons is increasingly unlikely as most states grapple with budget crises. Nevada may take the no-new-construction path, judging from discussion in key legislative committees this year.

Members of a Senate-Assembly budget subcommittee, told that the state's prison population is lower than expected, said last month that they would like a delay in new prison construction in southern Nevada and an end to plans to shut down the old Nevada State Prison in Carson City, dating to the 1870s, and an inmate camp near Tonopah.

Skolnik told the lawmakers that the current total of about 12,700 inmates in February was 725 less than what had been projected in drafting a $481 million, two-year budget for the state's prison system.

In addition to efforts to release more inmates, Skolnik said the economic downturn has resulted in fewer people on the street and that has cut into opportunities for criminals. "It's harder to become a victim if you're locked in your house watching TV," he told legislators.

The efforts to free up prison space include several legislative proposals, as well as a plan by the Nevada Pardons Board to release first-time inmates who have two years or less left on sentences imposed for nonviolent crimes. Chief Justice Jim Hardesty, a Pardons Board members, has said illegal aliens in that category could be pardons and turned over to federal immigration authorities for deportation.

The Pew Report statistics show Nevada with a total correctional population of 40,173 at the end of 2007. That included 13,461 on probation and 3,653 on parole, 7,231 in jails, and 13,245 in prisons. The rest were federal prisoners and community-supervised offenders.

The state's one-in-48-adults figure of adults in the corrections system in 2007 compares with one in 66 adults in 1982, according to the report. However, in terms of rankings nationally, the 2007 figure put Nevada in 43rd place among all states.

In adult parole and probation, Nevada ranked 47th among states with one in 106 adults under such supervision in 2007. That's barely changed from 1982.

The Pew report also shows that in 2008 Nevada spent about 8 percent of its state general fund on corrections. And for every dollar spent on corrections, about a fifth of that went for parole and probation costs.

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