Lawmakers consider strict supervision program for state prison system

CARSON CITY -- A lawmaker wants Nevada prisons to emulate Washoe County's strict, military-style inmate supervision program aimed at saving tax dollars and reducing recidivism.

The program, in use in the Washoe jail for four years, is volunteer but inmates who don't participate get the least amount of benefits authorized by law.

For non-volunteers, that means 22 hours a day of cell time, little television time, meals served in cells, no writing privileges, fewer visitors, fewer trips to the library and limited access to showers.

"This asks for a paradigm shift, a change in philosophy ... You have to earn your benefits, whether inside or outside the jail," Washoe County Sherif Dick Kirkland told the Assembly Judiciary Committee on Monday.

AB561 would require the Department of Prisons to conduct a pilot program in one of its institutions to see if the state might benefit from a similar program.

The sheriff is convinced the system could do for the state what he says it has done for his county.

Since his no-nonsense approach was implemented in 1995, Kirkland says the number of inmate-on-inmate assaults dropped to 24 in 1998, about 70 percent. The number of assaults on staff was reduced by half.

"Of the 3,700 jails in U.S., about 50 or 60 of them are doing this. When I was elected sheriff in 1994, I found that when an inmate showed up at the jail - and 80 percent of them are recidivists - they showed up knowing the system particularly well," Kirkland said.

Often inmates were so familiar with the jail's rules and routines that they would immediately demand services like dental and doctor visits, basketball and handball privileges, hot meals delivered to their bunks and regular TV viewing time.

"It seemed to me that something was wrong with this picture," Kirkland said.

In addition to shifting the way inmates earn their benefits, the program includes anger management and money management classes, Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, GED and vocational training.

"This bill speaks to rehabilitation and offers inmates the chance to get out of that cycle," said Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, R-Reno, the measure's author.

Kirkland also says that the new approach has saved the county about $500,000 in tax dollars. Inmates who qualify through good behavior are put to work in the jail or out in the community where they can earn money to helps pay for their room and board and any fines or fees levied by the court.

But Assemblyman Tom Collins, D-North Las Vegas, said he is wary of any prison system that seeks to save money at the expense of its prisoners.

"We nickel and dime these bad guys clear on to manufacturing products. We need to find some kind of balance," Collins said.

Critics doubt the program could work as well on the state level as it apparently has for Washoe County. They also fear the adverse effects on inmates who choose not to participate in the program and who therefore receive no benefits.

"They will have a lot of idle time. You're going to be looking at more assaults on inmates and employees," said Pat Heinz of the Nevada chapter of Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants.

While no one from the Department of Prisons showed up to testify about the plan, Angle said she talked to Prisons Director Bob Bayer about it.

"He said the bill was insulting but didn't give us any reason not to do it," Angle said.

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