September 18, 2008
Planning Commission Approves Permit for Rachel Prison

Photo by Dave Maxwell
Rachel residents on hand at County Courthouse for Planning Commission meeting on proposed prison.

By Dave Maxwell, Staff Writer

During their regular September 11 meeting the Lincoln County Planning Commission, on a 5-2 vote, accepted recommendations of Planning Director Clint Wertz to approve a conditional use permit for Toreson Industries.

The approval opens the door for Toreson to go ahead with his plan to try to find a private prison company to build a 2000-bed facility to house minimum-to-medium security inmates on about 100 acres of land he owns four miles west of Rachel.

Again, in Pioche, as was at public meeting in Rachel September 6, there was a large turnout of Rachel and other county residents opposed to the thought of a prison coming to Rachel, private or otherwise. On the other side, two or three others voiced support for the plan.

The permit was issued with a number of conditions recommended in the staff report prepared by Wertz. The Commission added three others following the public comment period. The additions were to limit the size of the prison between 1250-1500 beds, require that any structures built on Toreson’s property meet noise standards of at least 85 decibels to handle the Air Force jets making flights and training to the bombing range, and prison employees must meet the standards and accreditations of the American Correctional Association.

Putting in a privately run prison in Rachel is by no means a done deal and Mr. Toreson will be the first in line to admit that. He reiterated what he said at the Rachel meeting that he does not know if he can find a prison company that would be interested in coming to that remote corner of Lincoln County. He may not be able to, but the issuance of the special use permit gives him 18 months in which to look for someone to sign a letter of intent. Toreson told Commissioners, “If I don’t have something in six months, it’s probably not going to happen.”

At the beginning of the nearly three-hour meeting, Director Wertz gave a lengthy presentation going over his staff report and highlighting many concerns he had gathered from public comment and other information sources as well as the conditions he recommended in approving the special use permit.

Among them are conditions requiring Toreson Industries to submit a request for a master plan within 90 days; identify a business willing to locate to his property in Rachel within 18 months; enter into a development agreement with Lincoln County; require any sanitary facilities meet state and local standards; submit a business plan and fiscal impact analysis for the proposed project and related development activities.

Wertz said issuing a special use permit to Toreson Industries is the very first step in a long process. “There is a long road ahead,” he explained. If Toreson is able to entice a private prison to build on his land at Lincoln Estates, he will have to enter into a development agreement with the County and negotiations regarding that could take a long time and will likely impose quite a number of additional conditions. In addition to conditions Lincoln County would impose, Toreson said he had a list of additional conditions he would insist a private prison follow if they came to Rachel.

“I don’t want to do anything that is going to hurt Rachel,” Toreson said. “I would only be hurting myself.”

Those who oppose a prison located in Rachel said hurting their community is exactly what a prison would do. Fifteen people signed up to speak during the public comment period of the discussion, but not all did. Most who did were opposed to the prison for a variety of reasons.

Even Nellis Air Force Base expressed concern for the prison idea. Nicholas DiRosario, Community Planner from the Nellis Public Policy Office, said the Air Force had questions about any facilities built at Lincoln Estates, be it a prison, businesses, worker housing, etc.

It would have to be constructed to handle at least an 85-decibel noise level for aircraft flying overhead. “Some will be developmental, low flying aircraft, and others like helicopters and the A-10, are not fast and are very loud close up.” A number of studies done by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association have concluded that sounds louder than 80 decibels are considered potentially dangerous. Both the amount of noise and the length of exposure determine the amount of damage. Because of Mr. DiRosario's comment the Planning Commission including the noise level specifically as part of the conditional use permit.

Other concerns mentioned during public comment stated statistics show private prisons have a high failure rate, leaving the state to take over operation and pass on the costs to tax payers in the state. Low pay rate for workers; the work force has a high turnover with over 50 percent always receiving only on-the-job-training were concersn. Rachel’s tourism will suffer greatly; property and housing values would go way down. The Lincoln County Sheriff would need at least two full-time deputies stationed in Rachel. Tthe prison, being the largest employer in the county, would dominate the whole valley. The prison would not buy supplies and services locally, but buy from outside the county, which would be of no benefit to the county; and local people would move away, not wanting to live near a prison.

Toreson, during his own time of public comment, said he would not put a private prison on his land west of Rachel, “Unless and until I can be convinced this will be a model prison which will have no damage whatsoever to the county…I can’t afford to have any of the concerns these people have talked about tonight on my property.”

He said putting the prison in Rachel would only be the first phase to “kick start the process” of his economic development plan for the community. In addition Toreson said, “It’s my intention to put a solar manufacturing plant in there that will cost $300 million and create about 100 jobs. It’s my intention to put in a $5-6 billion solar farm in Lincoln County, starting with Dry Lake and coming back into Rachel. I’d like to start with Rachel first, but we don’t have the transmission capacity. It’s my intention to have Lincoln County be known as the solar capital of the world.”

County Sheriff Lee said he has a few concerns that still are unanswered such as would the prison be able to house federal prisoners? If so, he said, there would be “very stringent federal regulations that would have to be followed.” He wanted to make sure the prison workers would be adequately trained and state or federally certified. However, he said if the prison did not have any inmates from the State of Nevada, the corrections officers at the prison would not have to be state certified. He also said the prison could create a large draw on the Sheriff’s office in the County because he said, “Any felony crime that took place in that facility is a crime that happens in Lincoln County and would have to be investigated and prosecuted by Lincoln County…and there would be direct costs that would increase in the county that would have to be addressed in a development agreement with the builder.” He also thought another complication to having the prison in Rachel would be the need for two resident deputies in Rachel.

Those who spoke in favor of the prison said they felt the fears of citizens were mostly unfounded, and they recalled how people in Pioche strongly opposed the Honor Camp coming in. Now, the same people are fighting very hard to keep it from being closed by the State, citing all the fine work the inmates have done for the County.