Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Education Not Incarceration

Education Not Incarceration

by Dahn Shaulis

Sunday, February 14, 2010, 10:10 AM

[The RJ failed again to mention common sense legislation that could be used to reduce the State budget. I provided Mr. Benjamin Spillman with the written information below which he failed to use in his article "Residents Give Budget Input". I am doubtful that the RJ or the Sun will publish this]

I am asking that Nevada lawmakers gather the courage to push Senate Bill 398 in the emergency session, to reduce a dysfunctional and wasteful aspect of state government, to treat low-level drug offenders rather than throwing them into gang-infested, drug infested prisons. I am also asking Nevada voters to call or write their legislators about this measure.

According to the SAGE Commission, which approves of this measure, the State would save an estimated $51.2 million in the first year by diverting non-violent probation violators from prison to treatment. The SAGE Commission also estimated a $280 million savings over five years. Substance abuse treatment would be provided by the Department of Health and Human Services. The heads of Corrections and Parole and Probation have already publicly stated that they approve of this measure.

I speak to you not only as a concerned citizen, but also as an educator who has spent considerable time working in and studying the Nevada justice system. As a case manager in high security mental health units at two state prisons, I have seen this waste of resources, where prisons have become “the new asylums” and where high security prisons serve as graduate schools for organized crime.

For 45 years the State of Nevada decided to invest in adult and youth prisons instead of communities, public education, and human services. Crime grew as a result of the growing casino culture, racial segregation and discrimination, and the refusal to treat people for substance abuse and mental health problems. Overall index crime peaked in Nevada in 1980, yet the fear of crime enabled lawmakers to push for more prison funding, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars in capital expenditures. Currently, some lawmakers want to build prisons even as other facilities lie vacant.

Prisons in Nevada do little to habilitate prisoners, providing them with few opportunities to get the skills and resources they need to make it on the outside. It is appalling to see that Casa Grande, which is supposed to provide opportunities for short-timers, always has dozens of empty beds, while waves of low-level probation violators flood the high security High Desert State prison. Let’s have the courage to start the savings now. The time is now to downsize this costly part of government—and to replace it with community reinvestment and public education.

Nevada Interim Finance Committee Meeting

MEETING NOTICE AND AGENDA

Name of Organization: NEVADA LEGISLATURE’S INTERIM FINANCE COMMITTEE

Date and Time of Meeting: February 18, 2010 – 9:00 a.m.

Place of Meeting: Grant Sawyer State Office Building
Room 4401
555 East Washington Avenue
Las Vegas, Nevada

Note: Some members of the Committee may be attending the meeting and other persons may observe the meeting and provide testimony through a simultaneous videoconference conducted at the following locations:

Legislative Building
Room 4100
401 South Carson Street
Carson City, Nevada

If you cannot attend the meeting, you can listen to or view it live over the Internet. The address for the Nevada Legislature website is http://www.leg.state.nv.us. Click on the link “Live Meetings – Listen or View.”
 
Note: Please provide the secretary with electronic or written copies of testimony and visual presentations if you wish to have complete versions included as exhibits with the minutes.
 
A G E N D A
Note: Items on this agenda may be taken in a different order than listed.
 
*Denotes items on which the Committee may take action.

A. ROLL CALL.

*B. DISCUSSION OF THE STATE BUDGET SHORTFALL AND PROPOSED SOLUTIONS.

C. PUBLIC COMMENT.

(Because of time considerations, the period for public comment by each speaker may be limited, and speakers are urged to avoid repetition of comments made by previous speakers.)

Note: We are pleased to make reasonable accommodations for members of the public who are disabled and wish to attend the meeting. If special arrangements for the meeting are necessary, please notify the Fiscal Analysis Division of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, in writing, at the Legislative Building, 401 South Carson Street, Carson City, Nevada 89701-4747, or call the Fiscal Analysis Division at (775) 684-6821 as soon as possible.
 
Notice of this meeting was posted in the following Carson City, Nevada, locations: Blasdel Building, 209 East Musser Street; Capitol Press Corps, Basement, Capitol Building; City Hall, 201 North Carson Street; Legislative Building, 401 South Carson Street; and Nevada State Library, 100 Stewart Street. Notice of this meeting was faxed for posting to the following Las Vegas, Nevada, locations: Clark County Government Center, 500 South Grand Central Parkway; and Grant Sawyer State Office Building, 555 East Washington
Avenue. Notice of this meeting was posted on the Internet through the Nevada Legislature’s website at www.leg.state.nv.us.