Nevada to close its only max security juvenile detention center

Nevada's only maximum security juvenile correction center is closing after the private non-profit contractor hired to run it repeatedly ran afoul of safety and civil rights requirements, state officials said Tuesday.

The Department of Child and Family Services has reached an "amicable agreement" with Rite of Passage to "discontinue the relationship," which will result in the closure of the Red Rock Academy near Las Vegas, Nevada's Social Services Chief Chrystal Main said Tuesday.

Rite of Passage, which also runs the troubled juvenile rehabilitation center near Yerington, was facing the potential of $5,000 daily fines after an audit of the facility found numerous problems and concluded that ROP could not ensure the 43 youth housed there were "adequately protected."

The dissolution of the contract is the latest chapter in the rocky history of the correction center that has been repeatedly closed and reopened.

Rite of Passage won a four-year $11.6 million contract to reopen the facility in December 2013. But state operators found problems there almost immediately.

The Minden-based non-profit also operates three juvenile facilities in Northern Nevada, including two youth homes in Minden and the Silver State Academy rehabilitation center near Yerington, which has been rocked by multiple riots in recent months. The state pulled its children from the Yerington facility following the last riot in which the youths burned down two buildings on the campus.

Those facilities are licensed through local jurisdictions are not regulated or operated by the state.

The 43 youth, all juveniles on parole and placed by the state at the Red Rock facility, will be transferred to other correction centers in Nevada "soon," Main said.

Rite of Passage president Lawrence Howell said he was disappointed in the decision, saying the facility was "on target to become a national accredited correctional model, recognized by community stakeholders, families and regulators alike."

"For the past three decades, our agency has worked with some of the most difficult youth in the country that are traditionally under-served or ignored by rehabilitative, treatment and education programs," Howell said in a written statement. "We were grateful for opportunity to develop these services in Las Vegas, and were working with parents, families and stakeholders to create a safe, local, secure treatment program."

Red Rock Academy opened in December 2013 at the site of the former Summit View detention center. Budget cuts forced the state to close the facility in 2010.

An audit of the facility by the Nevada Legislature in July 2013 found multiple safety and civil rights violations at the academy under Rite of Passage's tenure.

Problems included noncompliance with medication requirements, failure to control tools and other contraband, poor reporting of corrective room restrictions and failure to maintain proper staff-to-youth ratios.

"Based on the results of the procedures performed, the policies, procedures and processes in place at Rite of Passage-Red Rock Academy do not provide reasonable assurance that it adequately protects the health, safety and welfare of youths at the facility and respects the civil and other rights of youths in its care," the report read.

In April, three youths escaped the facility by digging under a 14-foot fence.

Rite of Passage won the contract in a competitive bid in 2013 after testimony before the Nevada Legislature that allowing a nonprofit to operate the facility could save the state $750,000 a year. The plan was for ROP to serve 50 Nevada clients and open the remainder of the 96-bed facility to house inmates from other states.

The state's troubles with the detention center stretch back more than a decade. In 2002, the facility, which was then managed by a different private contractor, was mothballed by the state after youths there took over the facility's roof and held police at bay for more than an hour.

The state re-opened the facility in 2004, only to close it again due to budget cuts in 2010.

In early 2013, the Nevada Supreme Court's Commission on Statewide Juvenile Justice Reform recommended reopening the facility, saying it would benefit juvenile offenders from Clark County to be housed closer to their families and community. The 2013 Legislature agreed with the recommendation and allocated the funds for the re-opening.

The facility costs the state about $5 million a year to run, including $3.4 million a year for the contract with Rite of Passage and $1.3 million a year to pay off the debt for building the center in 1999.

The future of the facility will be determined by the Division of Child and Family Services, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Nevada Legislature, Main said.

Options would include mothballing the facility, having the state take over operations or finding another private contractor.

"I think there's probably several options, but again those will be contemplated by this division, the department and the Legislature," Main said.