Compliance issues dog state juvenile facility in Clark County

Nevada officials have ramped up monitoring at Red Rock Academy, a state juvenile correctional facility in Clark County troubled by compliance issues they declined to detail.

State officials were at the academy on Wednesday to discuss the problems, but would not release specifics about areas of concern, according to Chrystal Main, spokeswoman for the Division of Child and Family Services.

Red Rock is run by Rite of Passage, a nonprofit organization that also operates the Silver State Academy in Yerington, where a Saturday riot injured an employee and fire was set to two buildings. The unrest at the private juvenile facility on Paiute tribal land was the latest in a series of riots and prompted Clark County officials to remove several teens that had been placed there.

Late last week, state officials were evaluating its contractual options with Rite of Passage involving Red Rock. The organization is trying to correct areas of concern that were identified last fall by legislative auditors.

The fall audit found Red Rock was not in compliance with requirements for administration of medications and requirements for staff-to-youth ratios. There also was a lack of control over tools and contraband and poor reporting of corrective room restrictions. The audit also found that a lack of notification of youth rights did not ensure juveniles at the facility were adequately protected.

In April 2014, three youth escaped from the facility located near Range Road and Interstate 15.

Lawrence Howell, executive director at Red Rock who is with Rite of Passage, said no new concerns were discussed during the Wednesday meeting. Officials spoke about progress at the facility and addressing concerns raised in the past. He said the issues dealt with “general operational issues.”

“We agreed to continue our collaboration,” Howell said Thursday of his organization’s contract with the state. “It’s business as usual.”

Red Rock is a secure facility for juveniles and has about 46 youths. Generally, about 98 percent of the delinquents are from Clark County, Howell said.

The state facility opened in December 2013. It cost the state $3.5 million to have Rite of Passage operate Red Rock in fiscal year 2014. For fiscal year 2015, the cost is $4.6 million, state officials said.

The contract with Rite of Passage is set to expire on Sept. 30, 2017. The nonprofit gets paid $187.88 per day, per juvenile. No adjustments were made to the contract after Wednesday’s meeting, Howell said.

Late last week, state officials expressed their dissatisfaction with Rite of Passage and were on the verge of terminating the contract with the nonprofit.

“We are disappointed in the progress with the Red Rock Academy,” Mike Willden, chief of staff for Gov. Brian Sandoval’s office, told lawmakers Feb. 26 during an Assembly Ways and Means and Senate Finance Joint Subcommittee on Human Services’ hearing. “We intend to get to the finish line in either getting correction or taking over the facility ourselves.”

The state continues to find significant discrepancies at Red Rock, Willden said.

The contract options between the state and Red Rock run along three paths, according to Willden: the imposition of financial penalties, a demand for correction or a move to terminate the contract. All those options were being evaluated.

Howell said collaboration is key.

“We have an open line of communication with (the Division of Child and Family Services) and we are working on issue by issue together,” he said Thursday. “This morning we were going through policy and procedure revision.”

Howell said Red Rock clearly meets the staff-to-juvenile ratios. The facility must have a staff-to-juvenile ratio of 1 to 8 during the day and 1 to 16 during the night.

The facility’s actual ratios are 1 to 5 during the day and, on Wednesday night, the ratio was 1 to 11.

Last week, state officials were looking at the number of beds available at other state correctional juvenile facilities in the event that the 46 juveniles at Red Rock had to be moved.

Contact Yesenia Amaro at yamaro@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440. Follow @YeseniaAmaro on Twitter.