NV: Nevada Shortchanging Rehabilitation Programs

Nevada Assemblyman Bernie Anderson stated that Nevada is spending a lot of money on new prisons and is shortchanging programs that might rehabilitate people. Assemblyman Anderson is the vice chairman of the Assembly Select Committee on Corrections, Parole and Probation. This is a new legislative committee that has many responsibilities, including looking into sentencing alternatives for nonviolent crimes.

Prior to the formation of this new legislative committee, a committee that studied the state’s correctional system recommended that sentences for minor crimes be lowered. This committee also heard testimony from the general public about women prisoners’ lack of access to educational and vocational programs available to men and about problems with the prisons’ mental health programs.

Nevada is planning to build three new prisons that will incarcerate a total of 4,500 more people by 2015.

This news brief is based on a story in the Las Vegas Sun, Looking in on: Carson City. If the link is broken, check the newspaper’s archives.