By Mark Waite
The Nevada Department of Transportation will be asked to change the signs approaching Mesquite Avenue on Highway 160 that proclaim “prison area hitchhiking prohibited” to reflect the true nature of the facility.
Nye County Commissioner Dan Schinhofen made a motion Tuesday to alter the wording from “prison” to “detention facility.”
“The reason I want it changed is it’s not a prison, it’s a detention facility. Nobody can be sentenced there,” Schinhofen said.
The semantics of the word “detention center” versus “prison” have dogged the project ever since Pahrump was one of the sites considered by the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee in 2007 to when it was opened in October 2010. Opponents of the detention center point to the wording on the highway sign as evidence Pahrump is now known as a prison town.
Nye County Public Works Director Dave Fanning said the town of Pahrump asked to have the original sign removed but in six months the town hasn’t commented. County Commissioner Butch Borasky said he wanted the sign changed a long time ago to its official name, the Nevada Southern Detention Center.
Incoming Pahrump Town Board member Bill Dolan advocated for the change Tuesday.
“This was one of the issues that was on my radar for after the first of the year,” Dolan said.
He wanted “federal detention center” but it may not fit on the sign.
“God forbid someone’s out here, they get busted for drunken driving that are from Ely or Reno and they get bailed out and they call someone to have them get them out and they say come to the Nye County jail or detention center,” he said. “Do you realize the people that will be driving up to the federal detention center instead of the jail?”
NDOT will build the sign free of charge, Fanning said.
County Manager Pam Webster said the sign isn’t a directional sign, but merely a notification a detention center is in the vicinity.
“It’s not intended to direct anyone anywhere,” she said.
There are no obvious signs pointing to the detention center, even approaching it on Mesquite Avenue. The detention center, which can house up to 1,072 detainees who are awaiting trial in federal court is largely obscured on the west side by a landscaped berm as specified in the Nye County development agreement.
“This will be the third change if this change is acknowledged,” Fanning said. “I wish everybody would get on the same page so we would be talking from the same page instead of being divided as we currently are.”
Commissioner Joni Eastley said, “we’re running out of hairs to split.”
Borasky cast the sole vote against the motion, he wanted to have the Pahrump Town Board make the decision.
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- Horace Langford Jr. / Pahrump Valley Times – A sign on Highway 160 approaching Mesquite Avenue alerts motorists to a prison, but county commissioners say it’s actually a federal detention center.
“Incoming Pahrump Town Board member Bill Dolan advocated for the change Tuesday.”
Sorry Bill, but its a PRISON. End of story, now wait your turn before screwing up the town board.
What a bunch of cr*p….It is a PRISON,,I have met some of the PRISON employees and they are so sensititve about being their PRISION being called exactly what it is a PRISON,,, This prison was snuck in and I am sure that there are some in this town that got bribes or some kind of pay off for the prison to be built, HOMOSEXUALS did the same this,,,they want to be called GAY and not associated to the word HOMOSEXUAL which is so distastfulll but a PRISON is still a PRISON.
Thank god they didn’t call it a “CorrectionalFacility,” a rather silly term for a prison.
Thank god they didn’t call it a “Correctional Facility,” a rather silly term for a prison.
I think changing the wording to detention center will lesson the negative impact on tourism. I’m surprised the Town board, that sells itself as pro tourism, hasn’t taken the lead here. Actually, I’m not surprised.
I don’t have a dog in the fight so to speak (and Mrs. Whiplash told me to stay out of it), but I was curious if there was a difference between a “prison” and a “detention center”. Here’s what I found after a quick internet search: “A Detention Center is a place where one is detained while awaiting sentencing/trial. A Prison is a place where one is sentenced (after conviction of a felony) for terms greater than one year. A jail is usually considered a detention center. It may also have prisoners awaiting transfer to prison or prisoners who have been brought back due to the appeals process. It is also sometimes where prisoners are housed for sentences of less than one year (<365 days)."
So in my opinion, Mr. Schinhofen is right. These folks are only detained here until their "graduation" ceremony (in the form of sentencing) in the federal courts in Las Vegas and then they're moved somewhere else for the long term. Of course having said this, I realize that there is segment of the population here who will loudly disagree. They desperately want this to be a prison so they can continue to see the negative in everything. Complaining takes no talent and no skills. The problem with this is that if they ever do have something legitimate to complain about, no one will take them seriously because all they do is gripe.
Sorry for the sermon.
So what does one have to do to go to detention. Fail to do homework? Lie on their job application? Lets get real on who can be there. Some may be innocent and some may be very violent. How about a compromise for the sign on the highway.
Call it a prison/detention center”. Tours available upon request.
A prison is a prison, is a prison….. You can call it whatever you want, it’s still a building with criminals locked up inside. The sign also acts as a warning sign for motorists to be aware that they are travelling through a prison zone and not to pick up hitch-hikers who may have escaped from the prison/detention center.