Fast-track parole hearings may not restrain crowding

CARSON CITY -- A proposed regulation designed to speed up parole hearings might do little to curb prison crowding, a Parole Board official said Monday.

The regulation, which could be adopted by the Legislative Commission on Wednesday, would allow low-risk inmates to waive their right to appear in person for their parole hearings.

"It will not create a mass exodus from prisons," said David Smith, a management analyst for the Parole Board.

The proposed regulation comes before the Legislative Commission, a group of lawmakers that convenes when the full Legislature isn't in session, at a time when a new law aimed at reducing the prison population appears not to be working as intended.

About 2,400 inmates in the approximate 13,000 population state prison system will be eligible for parole hearings by the end of June, according to Smith.

He told members of the Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice, which advises the Legislature, that the Parole Board can hold about 700 hearings a month and will strive to increase that number in May and June, but will not be able to hear all cases.

The advisory commission met by teleconference in Carson City, Las Vegas and Indian Springs. Most members were at the High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs.

The backlog includes some 1,300 to 1,600 inmates who received additional good time credits that made them eligible for hearings because of a law passed by the Legislature last year.

The Parole Board has not been able to make a dent in that "bubble" for numerous reasons, mainly because another new law mandates inmates can attend their own parole hearings.

In the past, the Parole Board held many hearings without the inmates present.

Smith, however, predicted that allowing low-risk inmates to waive the right to appear at their own hearing would speed up disposition of about 10 percent of those cases.

Corrections Director Howard Skolnik said last week that the prison population has stabilized and that several planned prison construction projects could be delayed.

Skolnik will close the 500-bed Southern Nevada Correctional Center in Jean in July and transfer prisoners to other prisons in the Las Vegas area.

Recently completed construction projects at several prisons, including the women's prison in North Las Vegas, add cells for more than 700 inmates.

As a result of Skolnik's assessment, Gov. Jim Gibbons announced Wednesday he was cutting $77 million from the prison construction budget, part of his plan to reduce state spending by $914 million.

Before any inmates awaiting parole hearings can be released, Smith said the Division of Parole and Probation must prepare release plans. That agency is down about 50 officers, according to testimony at a hearing in March.

Traditionally the Parole Board has paroled about half of eligible inmates. About 40 percent of the inmates now eligible for parole have backgrounds as violent criminals or sex offenders, according to Smith.

Legislators had banked on the law increasing good time credits to keep the prison population from climbing dramatically. Other states are releasing inmates early as a way to ease crowding.

Estimates made at the 2007 Legislature were that the prison system would add 8,000 inmates in the next 10 years.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, predicted last week that the regulations could be the cure to reducing the backlog of parole hearings.

Prison consultant James Austen released a report to the commission that showed the April 8 prison population in Nevada was nearly 13,500, or about 700 inmates more than projected when the Legislature approved the prison budget in June.

He addressed the commission by his cell phone from Georgia.

Austen said the prison population would have 400 to 500 fewer inmates today if the Parole Board could have handled the backlog and released inmates who received additional good time credits.

Contact reporter Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.