Even with prison’s closing, state can’t find a way to save money

A few hundred prisoners get transferred to other facilities from the Nevada State Prison in Carson City, one of the oldest in the West. Most of the employees have found work at those other correctional facilities, though as many as 13 guards -- who won't or can't move the 100 miles to the nearest similar facility, in Lovelock -- may be laid off, qualifying them for unemployment come January.

What's the big deal?

The importance of the dust-up over when the 144-year-old state prison will close is the spotlight it shines on the question of whether state government can figure out how to save money anywhere, even by taking the kinds of steps now considered perfectly normal for employers trying to control costs in the private sector.

Gov. Brian Sandoval wanted to close the old prison in October, in hopes the move would save the state $15 million.

The Legislature -- dancing to the tune of the unionized state workforce, as usual -- postponed the closure till April 1, in order to give those workers an extra six months to find other government jobs.

Fine.

But as the state Department of Corrections went to work transferring prisoners elsewhere, it ended up with a weird fiscal anomaly: The department ran up $2.5 million in extra overtime in the third quarter, even as it now finds itself with 73 staff members to guard the remaining 140 inmates at the old Carson City lockup, designed to hold 800.

Out here in the real world, when an employer finds himself with an excess of staff, he lays some off or at least cuts some workers back to part-time. But when the state Department of Corrections is instructed to pursue the same kinds of efficiencies, it runs up millions in overtime, a problem they can figure no way to solve but to close the prison three months ahead of schedule, on Jan. 9?

The governor deserves credit for seeking ways to save taxpayers money. The problem is, a governor with the right instincts is left looking, here, like a rancher trying to herd cats with a broom.

Does the problem lie with Corrections Director Greg Cox, or with employment and work rules that tie his hands? Somebody had better find out, because more state belt-tightening may still be in order in the months and years to come.