Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017 | 3:19 p.m.
CARSON CITY — The state Department of Corrections is going to send 200 of its most dangerous and disruptive inmates to a private prison in Arizona to ease crowding at Nevada prisons.
The state Board of Examiners today approved a $9.2 million contract with CoreCivic, a private company that runs prisons.
Department Director James Dzurenda said the Nevada prison system has 13,683 inmates but only 13,361 beds in cells. Some inmates are being housed in prison day rooms and other areas.
Next year, there will be major work on a housing unit at High Desert State Prison outside Las Vegas that will cut the number of beds by another 200. Work at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City will further reduce the number of beds by 80.
The Arizona prison is in Eloy, near Phoenix. The first Nevada inmates will be transferred there in November.
Dzurenda said the contract calls for the facility to meet the same standards as Nevada prisons. The operation will be monitored by the American Corrections Association. The director said a Nevada team will visit the Arizona prison twice a year to review the operation.
