More contract inmates from the North Las Vegas area are expected to be arriving soon at the Lincoln County Detention Center in Pioche.
Sheriff Kerry Lee reported that his office has completed the testing from a large number of applications received for addition positions that will needed to be filled to handle the influx.
“We are waiting to get more contract inmates so we will know where we are going to be money wise, and what staffing we need,” he said. “What we need the soonest are dispatchers because what we have right now is detention center staff doing the dispatching.”
Lee expected to be receiving a few more female inmates this Saturday from North Las Vegas, “then we’ll start transporting even more March 31 – April 2.”
At present, the detention center has six or seven female inmates in the facility.
“We’ve just been getting a trickle lately, a few here and there, as the program begins to take shape. We keep the females separate, of course, from the male inmates. We have about a dozen men of our own local inmates right now,” he said.
The contract between the City of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas expires April 1, and then the next agreement worked out late last year between the three agencies takes effect.
“I think we will have about 50-60, both male and female, just to get started, he said. “And hopefully we will start gearing up from there. We really want to get up in the 70s and 80s if we can, but we don’t know how quickly that’s going to happen.”
He said he has not yet hired any of the new applicants for the positions that were open, “but I’m hoping to get new dispatchers started in the next couple of weeks.”
