New budget keeps Nevada State Prison open

Both legislative money committees Friday took final action on a plan which adds $28.2 million to the Department of Corrections budget and keeps Nevada State Prison open for the next two years.

The plan had already been agreed on by the joint subcommittee, but both Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means approved it Friday.

The pain was made a bit easier by new projections which predict Nevada will have 2,166 fewer total inmates in its prison system than the original budget was built on.

That made it possible to delay the opening of High Desert Prison Phase Five and defer construction of the proposed prison 8 " which would have required more than $200 million in bonds.

Closing NSP would have saved the department more than $18 million a year. It would also have eliminated more than 170 jobs in Carson City, which drew protests from the employees there as well as city officials who are already looking at a double digit unemployment rate in the capital.

Part of that cost was offset with other changes to the budget, including more than $11 million by deferring the opening of the newest phase at High Desert.

Also rescued from the chopping block was the Tonopah Conservation Camp. The cost of restoring that operation was offset by delaying the opening of an expansion at Three Lakes Valley Conservation Camp. The net cost of the decision was less than $400,000.

The budget approved Friday increases the governor's recommended total budget for prisons from $576.2 million to $604.4 million for the biennium.