$15 million for Nevada prison recreation yards part of requests in state budgets
It's part of millions budgeted for better security in areas for outdoor recreation, inmate shower stalls, door locks and new swamp coolers as the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC) works to fix lingering problems at prison facilities statewide.
More people behind bars means more taxpayer funding for prisons.
NDOC Director James Dzurenda described what's planned at High Desert State Prison, just northwest of Las Vegas on U.S. 95. He said regular chain link fencing had been used in a prison yard 'for higher-security offenders that have to either be separated or have continuous gang issues between each other.' That wasn't good enough, he said.
New psychiatric facility near CSN campus in Las Vegas priced at $420 million
'There was an incident last year. It literally took less than five minutes for an offender to break out of one of the cages and there was a homicide as a result of that,' Dzurenda said.
The word 'cage' didn't sit well with Democratic Sen. Melanie Scheible.
Dzurenda said 'enclosures' is the preferred term, and he proceeded to describe the difference between regular fences and the 'expanded steel enclosures' or 'recreation enclosures' that NDOC intends to use to get inmates out of their cells. He said the holes are smaller, but big enough for guards to see what's going on inside. The cost for each prison:
$6,148,299 — High Desert State Prison
$5,724,454 — Lovelock Correctional Center
$2,814,398 — Ely State Prison
But those aren't nearly the biggest budget items among a list of projects for 2026-27.
A total of 10 deferred maintenance projects add up to $35.7 million. Add on another four major projects and the total hits $138.4 million. (See second image in slideshow above.)
The biggest item on the list is the replacement of evaporative coolers at 12 buildings at High Desert State Prison, priced at $58.8 million. That would pay for new rooftop coolers and fans.
There's also a request for construction of a new culinary facility for the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City, which initially carried a price tag of $25.6 million. That has risen dramatically, now at $41.8 million due to inflation.
Officials said the potential effects of tariffs have not been added in.
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