Reprieve for 1870s-era prison

Closure of the prison in Carson City was among several cost-cutting plans questioned by members of a Senate-Assembly budget subcommittee as they worked on state spending priorities for the next two fiscal years.

The subcommittee, whose decisions are expected to be adopted by the Legislature next month, also voted to keep open the state Department of Corrections’ Tonopah prison camp, which houses inmates who help fight wildfires throughout Nevada.

The prison and camp were recommended for closure in Gibbons’ $481 million, two-year spending plan for the state Corrections Department. While keeping them open will increase the prison budget by $17 million to $18 million, that’s at least partly offset by cuts in other areas.

Corrections Director Howard Skolnik said after the subcommittee meeting that a proposed “Prison 8” prison in Southern Nevada will be postponed, although plans for a new prison execution chamber and regional medical center, both near Las Vegas, remain alive.

Skolnik also said plans to expand the prison system’s Warm Springs Correctional Center and Three Lakes Valley Conservation Camp are on hold.

Budget subcommittee members also were told that the governor’s estimate of about $11 million in lease revenue from the Southern Nevada Correctional Center in Jean, which was closed down last year, isn’t likely in the next two fiscal years because negotiations with federal immigration authorities are on hold.

Panel members were told by staffers that immigration officials wanted improvements made to the prison as a condition of any lease. The lawmakers also were told Alaska prison officials expressed interest in leasing the prison, but no firm offer has been made. A bid from a private company is pending, but details on the bid weren’t disclosed.

Skolnik, who had said the old Nevada State Prison should be closed on grounds it was no longer safe, said Tuesday that public safety “won’t be any more jeopardized than it has been for the last number of years that it has been operating. We have been OK.”

“It’s not an ideal physical plant. It’s not the best designed institution I’ve ever seen. But it’s functional and the staff there is experienced and they’re familiar with their operations. So I think we’ll be fine,” Skolnik said.

“Either way, with the governor’s recommendation or with this legislative budget, we will get through the next biennium reasonably whole, assuming the inmate population projections hold up.”

Prison employees had protested the plan to shut down Nevada State Prison, saying it would mean 175 to 200 job losses or difficult staff relocations to other prisons, and that would hurt Carson City’s economy.

The staffers also argued that the prison had gone through many upgrades over the years and is secure despite its age.