What citizens should know about jail overcrowding in Clark County
During the past year and a half my colleagues and I have been involved in a detailed study of jail overcrowding at the Clark County Detention Center. Although some of the findings of this study have been reported in the local newspapers, most of the more important results have yet to be revealed to the public. My aim here is to highlight some of the key findings from our research.
The population of jails and prisons has reached a crisis level all over the country. The jail in Clark County is no exception. We were hired by the county to answer two questions: (1) why is the jail overcrowded? (2) What can be done to solve the problem? The following are among our more important findings:
< Most of those in jail are not truly Adangerous@ (that is, they are not accused of committing the more serious of the Aindex crimes@ reported annually by the FBI); many in the county jail are charged with such minor offenses as failure to pay a traffic fine, loitering, disturbing the peace, shoplifting and vagrancy.
< Most jail inmates are Apretrial detainees@ awaiting final disposition of their cases (they have not been convicted); and, more important, most of these individuals would not even be in jail if they had enough money and/or property to get out of jail.
< An analysis of a random sample of 500 cases booked in the county jail found that fewer than 40 percent were ultimately convicted of an offense, and that most of these had their cases dropped because of lack of evidence.
< While the population of the jail increased 100 percent during the 1980s, the official crime rate decreased about 25 percent; this rate is misleading because it excludes many important crimes, such as drug and DUI offenses that result in a stay at the jail. It just so happens that one of the major causes of the increase in the jail population has been the increase in arrests for such offenses as vagrancy (which involves mostly homeless people), drunken driving, drugs (mostly possession), domestic violence and traffic offenses (mostly those who failed to pay their fines).
< Other factors that help explain the rise in the jail population are changes in certain laws (especially DUI and domestic violence laws); an increase in the proportion of people unable to afford bail; and delays in the processing of cases through the criminal justice system.
< Among our recommended solutions are: 1) use of alternatives to jailing people (such as citation release and placement into less expensive holding facilities); 2) changes in certain laws that would result in speeding up the process; 3) better coordination among the several agencies involved in dealing with crime; 4) use of alternatives such as house arrest, electronic surveillance, pretrial supervised release and community service for both pretrial detainees and those convicted of misdemeanors.
We must deal effectively with the problem of drug and alcohol abuse, since the data we collected on local jail inmates clearly show that far too many have these problems. Further, those with the most arrests and the highest rearrest rates are those who abuse drugs and alcohol.
Finally, we as a society must work on preventing crime before it occurs by concentrating our efforts on children and young people. Resent research has found that career offenders are youths who have experienced abuse and neglect at home and come from dysfunctional families. (Incidentally, Nevada ranks second in the nation in reported cases of child abuse, and abuse and neglect referrals to the local juvenile court constitute about 44 percent of all referrals, up from about 15 percent 10 years ago.) Further, most of these individuals have dropped out of school and have few marketable skills. In our final report we outline several specific recommendations that can help prevent these problems.
We must realize that building more jails and prisons is not the answer. First, the cost of building new facilities is reaching staggering proportions. And the average operating cost per year per inmate ranges from around $10,000 to more than $30,000. Furthermore, by spending money for these new facilities we will most certainly take away money from vital public services such as schools and libraries.
Second, the fact that we need more jail and prison space means that we have failed to deal with the problem at the beginning. After all, we are essentially a Areactive@ societyCwe too often wait until there=s a crisis and then we react, often too late.
Third, and most important, building jails and prisons will not solve the problem; it never has. In fact, history shows that every time we open a new jail or prison, it is filled to capacity within few months (this happened in Clark County).
At best, jails and prisons merely Amanage@ the crime problem; at worst, they may even perpetuate the problem. It is time to try something different.
Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1/7/90.
Update: This commentary summarizes a detailed study of jail overcrowding in Las Vegas. Our conclusions that there was no evidence of a need for new jail space rattled a few cages, chiefly among those with a vested interested in jail expansion. The local "powers that be" even tried to halt the study before it ever began and then so carefully scrutinized what we were doing that we had a hard time completing the project. Several years and much politicking later, they finally got their new jail. See the next essay.