Nevada

Overview

Nevada’s prison population has been among the fastest growing in the nation, and was projected to grow faster still over the next ten years, increasing 61 percent by 2017, to 22,141 prisoners. High rates of failure among people on probation supervision as well as the lack of community-based treatment for substance abuse, mental illness, or co-occurring disorders were identified as the key factors driving the growth in the prison population. In response to this growth, the legislature voted nearly unanimously to enact several policy measures to provide incentives for people to successfully complete probation and parole terms in Nevada. As a result, the state is expected to save $28 million by 2009. To ensure that the savings are reinvested in expanding community-based behavioral health care services, the state established a justice reinvestment fund with $6.3 million.