Nevada Should Ban For-Profit Prisons, Says North Las Vegas Assemblywoman

If Assemblywoman Daniele Monroe-Moreno has her way, for-profit prisons would have no place in Nevada. A bill introduced by Monroe-Moreno, a former corrections officer who represents North Las Vegas, would prohibit for-prisons from operating in the state.

"In Nevada, people are more important than corporate profit margins," she said Tuesday.

Her bill would stop the state - and local - authorities from contracting out jail services to for-profit companies.

In introducing the bill earlier this year, Monroe-Moreno listed what she saw as issues with private prisons, including:

• Private prisons are not government entities and are not always covered by public records laws
• Private prisons are accountable to their shareholders, not the public. The focus of private prisons is on maximizing profit, not rehabilitation and community safety
• Private prisons typically staff their facilities with fewer employees than in prisons managed by the State, pay lower wages, offer fewer employee benefits, provide less training, and leave unfilled positions vacant for extended periods of time, often in violation of contracts with the state
• Evidence of cost savings for the state is mixed
• Studies that do show savings for the state are often financed by the private prison industry
• Private prisons may produce reduced costs based on unsafe staffing cuts, providing inadequate healthcare, and offering less rehabilitative programming

Monroe-Moreno amended the bill after it was originally introduced to allow the state to temporarily house inmates out of state - something the Corrections Department say would be necessary while repairs were made to in state facilities.

(Subscribe to local news alerts on Patch)

The bill would require that inmates from out of state be sent out of state before Nevada residents and for-profit prisons allow teleconferencing for Nevada inmates that they receive.

The bill is still working its way through the Assembly.

Photo Monroe-Moreno's Office