NV: Planning Board Recommends Prisons not Schools

The Nevada Public Works Board recommended in September that the state spend half of the public money set aside for construction projects on prisons.  The state has $764 million to spend on capital projects, and the Public Works Board suggested that $360 million of that should be spent on prisons.

Here’s what’s on the Department of Corrections construction list: $60.7 million for 400 more prison beds at the state women’s prison, $51.7 million for two more housing units of 336 cells at High Desert State Prison, $155.3 million for three new conservation camps, $34.7 million for maintenance of existing prisons, and $7.5 million to plan the state’s next big prison, and $48.7 million to build a mental health prison.

The big loser in this process is higher education. Nevada’s university system requested $217 million for construction of a health sciences center--one of its many projects not approved by the public works board. These recommendations will go to the governor for approval before being sent to the legislature.

This news brief is based on an article in the Nevada Appeal, Public works staff calls for prison construction. If the link is broken, check the newspaper’s archives.