Prison pilot progam

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, told Finance Committee members Monday that Senate Bill 398 could reduce the state's prison population and save millions of dollars by creating a two-year "intermediate sanction" pilot program for low-risk probation violators as well as people whose crimes are linked to alcohol or drug addiction.

Life skill and rehabilitative programs would be offered to about 400 participants a year, who would stay an average of six months.

Sen. Horsford said the program could save the state more than $34 million over the next five years, noting that it costs the state about $22,000 a year to incarcerate a prisoner.

"Clearly there is a new and more innovative approach we can take that would ensure public safety and require the offender to go through their sentence, but also do it in a way that doesn't cost the state what we're spending now," Sen. Horsford said.

The program would use existing facilities and wouldn't require new beds. Drug and alcohol treatment programs for the centers would be provided through the Department of Health and Human Services.

Bernie Curtis, chief of the Division of Parole and Probation, spoke in support of the bill, saying, "It's not going to cost us anything in parole and probation, frankly, to use these intermediate sanctions. We think it's a good start for a program that is needed in this state."

Yes it is.

Of course, if Nevadans are being sentenced to prison who aren't truly violent felons -- offenders who don't really need secure confinement because they're not likely to harm anyone -- lawmakers might want to go back and thin the list of felony statutes, in the first place.

That said, Sen. Horsford's proposal deserves cautious support. Saving tax money is good, and the old model of locking men up behind stone walls and throwing away the key -- while still useful in some cases simply to protect the public -- has rarely accomplished much in the way of "rehabilitation."

Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, praised the program, but said it's important to know all program costs before starting it. Amen to that. And while they're at it, some consideration should be given to the benefits of putting such offenders to work at honest manual labor, instead of leaving them to memorize the daytime TV schedules.