Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Metro agrees to 48-hour jail hold

A court-ordered policy that inmates must see a judge or be released after two days in the Clark County Detention Center became all but permanent.

The county jail and Metro Police agreed Friday to adopt the changes voluntarily, rather than continue to challenge the 48-hour procedure, attorney Walt Cannon said.

Last fall, U.S. District Judge Philip Pro overturned a 20-year-old rule that allowed authorities to hold suspects up to eight days without giving notice of the charges.

The judge ruled that the policy was unconstitutional and violated state law.

Though jail and police officials first fought the efforts to change the release policy, a slight modification of the procedure made it easier for authorities to live with.

Now officials only hope to eliminate the requirement of distributing copies of the judge's order to each inmate.

Cannon said Friday that it cost the jail a "large amount of money" to pass out the fliers to the estimated 48,000 people who are arrested and detained each year.

"It also creates a litter problem at the jail because the guys read them and throw them on the floor or at each other," the attorney said.

Inmate attorney Cal Potter said he does not object to discontinuing the distribution of the fliers.

Co-counsel Karen Winckler, who represented inmate Rusty Havens in the case, said she regularly monitors the Justice Court hearings and is delighted with the results.

"I thought to myself, 'God, all these people would have been sitting in jail for eight days,"' she said. "It's amazing to sit there and see a judge talk to these people."

About 180 inmates appear daily in Justice Court, where one of six justices of the peace reviews the police report and tells them of the charges, Court Administrator Russ Eaton said.

At that time, the inmate is either released or held because he or she is found to be a danger to the community or a flight risk. Shortly after that hearing, the Clark County district attorney's office must file a formal complaint.

"We are operating on Saturdays and holidays to do the 48-hour review," Eaton said.

The justices of the peace start at 7:30 a.m. in order to squeeze the additional hearings into the day. Those on the weekend shift travel to the jail where they hold court over closed-circuit television, which cost at least $8,000 to install, Eaton said.

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