Drug Court bill approved

CARSON CITY -- Gov. Kenny Guinn's plan to release low risk state prison inmates early to take part in intensive drug testing and counseling programs run by the drug courts in Las Vegas and Reno, cleared the Legislature Sunday.

In a 41-0 vote the Assembly approved SB184, which proposes that non-violent inmates, within two years of their release from prison, will be eligible to enroll in the program.

District Judge Jack Lehman, who operates the drug court in Las Vegas, told lawmakers earlier that only 14 percent of those who complete the program commit another crime. He said that compares with an 80 percent repeat offender rate for those who are released directly from prison.

There will be up to 150 prison inmates who will be eligible. They must have a home and a job and the judges in Las Vegas and Reno have offered to help in finding these.

At the start, the inmates will be under house arrest at night after they complete their job, drug tests and counseling during the day.

The state will pay the drug courts $1,500 for the first month of supervision, then $250 a month after that until the inmate completes the program. The program must last at least one year.

This is cheaper than the $7,000 a year it costs the state to house a minimum security inmate.

The drug courts in both Las Vegas and Reno contract with Choices Unlimited to do the testing and provide the counseling.

Some members of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee Saturday questioned whether this company was certified by the state Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Abuse. David Kladney, a managing partner of the firm, said the program had not received state certification but its workers had been cleared by the state.

He said to get state certification would drive the price up. Assembly Speaker Joe Dini, D-Yerington, told committee members the program was working and there was no sense in trying to change it now.

At present, the judges in Las Vegas and Reno send some of those convicted of crimes to the program, rather than to prison.

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