Saturday, April 6, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
THE hard sell begins Tuesday on the steps of the Clark County Courthouse.
Southern Nevada's top law enforcement officials will meet with reporters to push a $120 million public safety bond (Question 1) that will guide us into the 21st century.
Spearheading the ambitious initiative, in the planning stages the past couple of years, is Sheriff Jerry Keller, District Attorney Stewart Bell, District Judge Nancy Becker and businessman Kenny Guinn.
The September ballot question asks voters to put the $120 million toward a new 1,500-bed jail and regional justice center that will house Las Vegas Municipal Court, Justice Court and District Court. The money also will be used to double the size of the juvenile detention center, expand the Spring Mountain Youth Camp and enlarge the facilities for abused and neglected children at Child Haven.
All this will be done without raising taxes.
Guinn, one of Southern Nevada's most respected civic leaders, has been working behind the scenes to raise money from the business community for a public relations campaign to promote the bond issue.
He's looking for $250,000-$300,000, and expects the rapidly expanding casino and homebuilding industries will bear the brunt of the tab.
Every last penny is likely to be needed in the campaign. Voters in the past have been skeptical of such bond issues.
They would be wise, however, to carefully consider this one.
Question 1 gives us, for the first time ever, a comprehensive plan to address public safety needs. The goal here is to help Southern Nevada gain the upper hand in the war on crime.
Local law enforcement leaders, however, can't do it alone.
Las Vegas, one of the fastest-growing and thriving communities in the nation, has to step forward and fulfill its responsibility. It has to give the justice system the tools to do the job. There simply are no alternatives.
While the population here has exploded within the past decade, so has crime. More criminals have been sent to jail, but the county detention center has remained the same size.
When it opened in 1985, the jail was designed to hold 858 inmates. Today, it houses more than 1,800 prisoners.
Keller estimates that all available jail space in Las Vegas and its surrounding cities will be taken up by the end of the year.
In other words, a crisis is pending. But the problem doesn't stop there.
The county courthouse, the site of Tuesday's high-powered news conference, is ill-equipped to meet the needs of today's growing justice system. Anyone who's made a recent trip there knows how outdated and overcrowded the building is.
Not only will a regional justice center bring the three court systems under one roof, but it'll provide enough space for a convenient and comfortable setting for the public to conduct its business.
The center, friends, is long overdue.
If passed by the voters, Question 1 also will do wonders for the Juvenile Court system, an important, but badly neglected piece of the crime puzzle.
For the past decade, as Southern Nevada has witnessed a mounting gang problem, juvenile crime has quadrupled. Child abuse and neglect has doubled, as well. Yet, the juvenile jail hasn't been expanded since 1980.
Question 1 allows authorities to build a 250-bed addition to the juvenile detention center and expand the much-praised Spring Mountain Youth Camp, a medium-security facility for troubled teenagers.
As you listen to Keller and company pitch the public safety plan Tuesday, remember it has been carefully thought out over months of preparation.
There are no turf wars in this plan. Everyone has the same goal -- to make Clark County a safer place.
So let's be responsible and vote for Question 1 in September.
This is no time to let our guard down in the war on crime.
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