Sheriff: It's time to talk regional jail

The Carson City jail has been at about 80 percent capacity since 2010, according to CompStat data provided by the sheriff's office. And that means it's time to start planning for the future, Sheriff Ken Furlong said.

"When you are at that level, you truly are at risk of overpopulation and you start kicking out inmates," Furlong said, adding that it won't be those awaiting sentencing getting the boot - it'll be the sentenced inmates, meaning "there's no punishment for the crime."

Now, Furlong is contemplating a regional jail for those who have been convicted and are serving their time. It would be many years before a plan could be in place, he said, but it is a process that needs to start soon to avoid an overpopulation-induced scramble.

As it is now, Furlong said, there are occasions of overpopulation. The jail is designed for 228 inmates, but it also houses both genders without mixing them. It creates a problem of having so many women, for example, that no men can be put into an overflow ward, reducing the maximum capacity.

He said about 41 percent of the inmates, on average, are serving sentences.

The jail was hitting capacity with some regularity several years ago, but a new emphasis on alternative sentencing - house arrest and mandatory counseling, for example - brought down the numbers. But they are starting to come back up, Furlong said. Within the next three years, he predicted, the average population would exceed 80 percent of capacity.

"It's a horrid environment. It might look nice, but it's a horrid environment," Furlong said of his almost 12-year-old jail. "It smells and they just stack body on body there. New Year's Eve? They were lining (inmates) up outside."

Furlong's ideal solution for overpopulation would be moving the sentenced inmates to a regional facility managed cooperatively with Lyon and Douglas counties, though Lyon is building a facility while Douglas has just renovated its jail, Furlong said.

"By any standard, all three facilities are new," Furlong said.

But if all three end up working together, it could minimize costs, he said, although he admits that getting a plan the three could agree upon would take years.

However, Furlong does have a location in mind: The now-mothballed Silver Springs Conservation Camp. The sheriff notes that it is nothing more than an idea at this point - not a concrete proposal.

Carson City Manager Larry Werner agrees with Furlong that this is something Carson City needs to start examining, using the phrase "pre-planning" to describe the stage it is in.

"You're probably talking five to 10 years out," Werner said. "But it's never too early to start looking at these kinds of things."

They also would be sure to include the community in any discussions once a time frame were set, he said.