The Lyon County Detention Facility could end up feeling the effects of a Nevada bail reform bill without additional support or staffing by July 1, the Board of Commissioners heard during a recent presentation.
Lt. Josh Barnes, who has served with the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office since July 1999 and is middle management of the LCDF for the past three years, reported to the commissioners on Jan. 20 that the 2021 Nevada Legislature provided certain mandates from AB424 and Senate Bill 24. SB24 addressed requirements and costs in workforce development programs that will impact the LCSO and the county court systems overall.
But AB424, as of July 1 this year, requires a pretrial release hearing to occur within 48 hours after a person has been taken into custody in open court or through remote communication. The hearing can be continued for good cause, but Barnes said ultimately there’s no way to guarantee it can be held within 48 hours.
“As soon as someone is arrested and brought to the Lyon County Jail, the clock starts ticking at that arrest,” Barnes said. “Someone has to be brought in front of a judge within 48 hours.”
If a suspect is brought in at 1 or 2 a.m. and they’re intoxicated, it could take anywhere between 12 and 20 hours for them to become sober, by which time scheduling becomes problematic for or during the weekend.
“We are struggling as is, and we’re barely keeping up,” he said.
Barnes said in his three years in his position, general conditions have improved in the jail thanks to support from Sheriff Frank Hunewill, the purchase of new equipment from county comptroller Josh Foli and improved medical conditions overall for inmates. Still, there’s room for improvement, he added.
AB424 was based on efforts to overhaul Nevada’s bail system. In May 2018, Jose Valdez-Jimenez, 58, was accused of stealing merchandise from various Las Vegas Victoria’s Secret shops and held in the Clark County Detention Center. A judge assessed him a $40,000 bail that he could not pay upon arrest and had been kept in jail for more than 15 months. It was a defining case that sparked bail reform efforts in the 2019 legislative session, but it did become an unfunded mandate.
Barnes said pre-COVID yearly booking numbers went from approximately 2,101 in 2018 and 1,982 in 2019 to a dip of 1,619 in 2020, but bookings are expected to increase again. Additionally, conducting bail hearings within 48 hours of arrest would lower the average stay within the jail to two to three days and increase the number of releases on a daily basis.
Control room operator supervisor Nicole Cisneros, working in the jail for six years, said the average booking time for inmates in the jail, after releases get priority and working through interruptions or inmate fights, is about 10 hours per inmate. Releases take about 90 minutes, and the jail’s high-volume release days are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, causing other essential functions to stop or experience delays for hours.
Cisneros said going to a seven-day-a-week bail hearing process would result in a daily, standard average of about four-and-a-half releases rather than three predictable days of releases.
“That’ll be causing an additional 6.75 hours of work just off of releases; that’s not including the 55 hours we have just on bookings,” Cisneros said. “And bookings, releases, those are all causing delays in mandatory functions: head count, feeding, medications – we’re spending that time on paperwork.
“We’re not always able to watch the inmates as often as we’d like and working with the deputies. Ultimately, our main goal is the safety and security of the jail, and we want to make sure the inmates are safe and make sure our deputies are safe.”
The jail itself has nine control room operators who are managing the inmates, watching the upper and lower levels and currently working 12-hour shifts. Cisneros said they are overseeing a wealth of tasks, and it requires at least five months to fully train new employees for the position.
County Manager Jeff Page said the issue could result in liability issues for Lyon if it’s not tended to properly, with board Chairman Ken Gray noting checks and balances are necessary for the public’s safety.
“I’ve heard this from the community, ‘Who cares? They’re just bad guys, why are you giving them more rights than they should have?’ But until you are convicted, we are constitutionally obligated. The court levies them reasonable bail,” Page said. “It has to be based on the severity of the crime. They’re released upon their own recognizance.”
After the Jan. 20 Board of Commissioners meeting, Page met with the Justices of the Peace, the LCSO, the public defender’s office and district attorney and reported that Lyon County will need to add more staff to its Jail and Pre-Trial Services this budget year.
“The meeting went well and we are in the preliminary phase of developing and implementing processes and procedures to ensure a smooth transition on July 1,” Page told the Appeal.
