For the first time since budget cuts led to layoffs at the Clark County Sheriff’s Office in the wake of the Great Recession, jail administrators want to use state money to relieve the pressure of a growing inmate population by hiring eight new corrections deputies and a jail commander.
The move, which county commissioners will address today, would allow jail administrators to go forward with a plan to add up to 142 beds at the jail. The hiring of additional personnel would be paid for using an estimated $1.51 million over the next two years from the state Department of Corrections.
That would allow the sheriff’s office to dedicate deputies to parts of the jail that have been understaffed. If authorized by commissioners, the hiring of new deputies would begin during the remaining months of 2014.
The county has two contracts with the Department of Corrections. One is for housing inmates who have violated the terms of their supervision. The other provides 27 beds to work-release inmates. The latter accounts for the bulk of the money the county receives, said Norah West, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections.
Hiring more corrections deputies and a jail commander, who would be tasked with planning for a possible jail expansion, is necessary “to address the growing jail population,” Jail Chief Ric Bishop said. On average, the jail houses roughly 763 inmates a day, up from 720 in 2013.
Over the past two years, the number of jail bed-days occupied by DOC inmates has doubled, Bishop said, adding that the jail needs to look at ways of reconfiguring resources.
An expansion of the jail may not come in the form of a brick-and-mortar addition, Bishop said, but rather in providing more resources, including medical and mental health services.
“It’s more than just building more beds,” he said. “We need to sit down and get this done quickly.”
The jail’s population has continued to climb, in contrast to national trends reported by the U.S. Department of Justice and Bureau of Justice Statistics.
The jail staffs around 148 positions, including sergeants and administrators, but not counting contract positions and support staff.
The jail is still dealing with cutbacks from 2008, when the downturn in the economy led the sheriff’s office to cut 32 custody staff positions. The county has worked to replace those positions in 2014. Earlier this year, commissioners approved the hiring of eight new patrol deputies. The sheriff’s office plans to ask for eight more deputies in 2015.
At the jail, the addition of more staff would allow its Re-entry Program, housed in H-Pod, to operate full time, Bishop said. H-Pod, the jail’s dormitory-style pod, is where the jail provides inmates nearing release with resources intended to put their lives on track. It had been empty before reopening in January.
Without the additional deputies, Bishop said, the jail wouldn’t have the staffing capacity to re-open its newly renovated A-Pod, which will house suicidal inmates, and at the same time operate H-Pod full-time. While A-Pod is slated to open soon, there’s still no official date.
Over at the Jail Work Center, a minimum-security center located on Northwest Lower River Road, 96 beds would become available with additional staffing.
If commissioners approve the hires, the new jail beds would become available during the spring of 2015, Bishop said.
