Nevada prison chief outlines $405.6 million budget

By Cy Ryan

Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017 | 4:02 p.m.

CARSON CITY — There are going to be big changes for Nevada prison inmates in the next two years.

“We have to change the agenda for these offenders,” said James Dzurenda, hired last year as director of the state Department of Corrections. They must be prepared while behind bars to return to society and not a life of crime, he said.

Dzurenda outlined a $405.6 million DOC budget today before Senate and Assembly money committees. Under the budget, it will cost the state $15,327 a year to house an inmate in 2018.

Dzurenda said programs must be available to treat the mentally ill, drug addicts and those with anger management problems.

Inmates with mental problems don’t get enough treatment, he said. They will be transferred to a prison near Carson City to get help rather than being placed in isolation cells, he said.

Some violent offenders are kept in isolation for years and then released without any job training and nowhere to go, he said.

There are about 1,800 military veterans in Nevada prisons, the highest per capita in the nation, Dzurenda told lawmakers. Some 28 percent of the more than 13,000 prisoners are transients. A total of 40 percent are in prison because of parole or probation violations.

The budget calls for more prison employees to get inmates ready to return to the outside.

The department has nine major prisons, nine conservation camps and two transitional housing centers.

As the prison population grows, the age of those confined has risen. One of the biggest items in the budget is medical care.

The number of hospital admissions this fiscal year has increased by 53 percent compared to the prior year. And the length of stay has risen 32 percent.