Corrections chief says two camps targeted to close

CARSON CITY -- Corrections Department Director Howard Skolnik told a criminal justice panel Monday that his new two-year budget proposes to close two rural Nevada conservation camps used to house minimum security inmates.

Skolnik disclosed to the Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice that the camps located in Pioche and Tonopah are targeted for closure in the budget that begins July 1, 2009.

Skolnik has not previously specified which of the nine remaining camps would be targeted for closure in his budget submitted to Gov. Jim Gibbons. A Silver Springs camp east of the capital that used to house female inmates was closed in this budget cycle because of funding reductions.

"Closing the camps is not high on my list of things I would like to do. ... We don't have any alternatives at this point in time," he said.

Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko, said the closures would hurt rural communities.

"The communities are really going to suffer when you close those camps," he said.

Skolnik agreed, saying the Pioche camp represents 30 jobs in a town with a population of 800.

The Pioche camp has 212 inmates. The Tonopah camp has 146 inmates and represents 20 to 25 jobs, he said.

Skolnik said his submitted budget also proposes to close Nevada State Prison in Carson City and shift the 900 inmates to High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs, where an expansion is under way. It will be much cheaper to house the inmates in the new prison because of the way it is designed, he said.

That would eliminate 170 jobs. Those staff members would be given first chance at new agency job openings.

The closures would have to be approved by the Legislature.

Closing the two camps would save the agency about $3 million a year.

Closing the antiquated state prison in the capital would save $19 million a year.

The closures are needed to meet a 14 percent budget reduction for the next two years sought by Gibbons because of declining tax revenues.

Skolnik acknowledged that closing the camps may not be cost effective from an overall perspective, given the value the minimum security inmates generate by fighting fires and providing other services.

But the agency cannot meet its own budget cut requirements without the closures, he said.