Panel to review tough-on-crime effects

CARSON CITY -- In the 13 years since Nevada passed truth-in-sentencing legislation, little effort has been made to see whether the legislation is working, the head of a criminal justice study panel says.

The tough-on-crime sentencing rules imposed mandatory sentences for some crimes, set minimum sentences and reduced access to credits that would get inmates out sooner.

They were designed to cut crime by putting the worst criminals away for longer periods of time.

But Supreme Court Justice Jim Hardesty said Monday that an advisory commission created to monitor the effort and report to the Legislature on its impact met only twice, filing reports to the Legislature in 1997 and 1999.

The commission was reorganized by the 2007 Legislature to get a handle on various issues facing Nevada's criminal justice system. Hardesty was named chairman of the panel.

Amid projections that the number of inmates would continue to grow dramatically, lawmakers and Gov. Jim Gibbons were looking at the potential of nearly $2 billion in prison construction in the next eight years and the possibility of a federal lawsuit if they don't reduce crowding.

Officials also were looking at the prison system's growing share of the budget, already about 18 percent.

Lawmakers also approved changes designed to reduce the number of inmates and their growing cost to the state, including revisions to good-time credits that made 1,600 inmates eligible for parole.

A subcommittee of the new commission headed by Hardesty voted Monday to hire James Austin, who has consulted for the Department of Corrections, to do that study.

Hardesty said the goal is to recommend ways to improve administration of the criminal justice system.