February 28, 2008
U.S. Marshall's Sending Prisoners to Lincoln County

By Dave Maxwell, Staff Writer

Some federal prisoners from the U.S. Marshall Service in Clark County could be new inmates at the Lincoln County Detention Center. Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee said the detention center in Pioche has already passed the U.S. Marshall’s inspection required to use the facility and “now it is nothing more than a matter of paperwork to get that rolling.”

Only about 5-10 federal prisoners will be located in Pioche, starting in March or April, Lee said. The length of stay by a U.S. Marshall Service prisoner in Lincoln County will probably be less than a year. He said he was of the opinion that most of the prisoners sent up from Las Vegas would be “fairly low-risk inmates.” Overcrowding conditions in Clark County create a real need to have additional space, like in Pioche, available.

The federal inmates will not put the Detention Center over capacity. Lee said they usually want to keep at least 5-10 beds open in the 108-bed facility. “That gives us the ability to move our prisoners around and we don’t want to get more than 95 prisoners altogether,” he added.