Nevada's prison officials are asking lawmakers to replace federal money being cut from innovative programs that get inmates off drugs and prepare them for the outside world.
Dorothy Nash Holmes, administrator of prison programs, said there have been dramatic success stories, but the proposed federal budget cuts their funding by more than two-thirds.
She told a joint Ways and Means-Senate Finance subcommittee only 4.6 percent of those who successfully complete the Oasis and Wings programs have come back to prison so far.
"We did 1,046 drug tests last year and only 1 percent of them were positive," she told a joint Ways and Means-Senate Finance subcommittee.
She said once in the program, disciplinary problems drop substantially. Inmates live in a program that provides more than a dozen different programs from anger control to substance abuse and general-education classes.
She said that's critical because 80 percent to 90 percent of those in the Nevada prison system have some sort of substance abuse problem, and most of the time that problem contributed to their criminal conduct.
"If we can get treatment down their throats in prison, and that is legal and constitutional, it works," she said.
National studies, she said, show drug treatment programs can reduce re-offending by ex-inmates up to 70 percent.
She said Wings in Northern Nevada and Oasis in the southern part of the state were started with federal grants. She said the department needs $500,000 a year to continue the programs.
Holmes was joined by Dorothy North, who runs Vitality House, the nonprofit group which operates Wings.
"Our success rate over the past five years is like 78 percent," she said. "The program will not survive without funding."
Holmes also urged legislative support for the department's new "Going Home Prepared" program designed to make sure inmates are ready for the outside world and have the tools to be successful.
Until recently, she said, Nevada was one of few states with no re-entry program: "We put them out the door with $25 and new jeans and that was it."
She said the system now being tested provides education, mentoring and substance abuse treatment for inmates approaching release.
"We make the contacts for them, help them locate housing, do mental health assessments, help get them identification papers," she said. "We help them plan their re-entry."
She said there are 221 inmates in the program with 56 of them already on parole, including female inmates.
The subcommittee took no action on the requests.
n Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or at 687-8750.
