Nevada sentencing office unveils new database, flags aging prison costs and fentanyl data

The Nevada Department of Sentencing Policy on Thursday showed the Assembly Judiciary Committee a new Microsoft SQL Server database and public dashboards designed to improve tracking of sentencing and correctional trends across the state.

NDSP Executive Director Georgia Powers told the committee the office’s mission is “to promote an equitable and reliable criminal justice system by providing reliable criminal justice data, practical fiscal analysis, and comprehensive policy resources” and that the agency now houses the Nevada Sentencing Commission and related subcommittees.

Powers and Deputy Director Jenna Bonacorsi described an "all offenses" dataset that records every offense listed on an offender’s current booking rather than only the most serious charge, a change NDSP said will allow more precise trend analysis. Bonacorsi said the database is now up and running after a year of planning with the state Office of the Chief Information Officer.

The presentation focused on two demographic analyses: the aged prison population (55 and older) and young adults 24 and younger. NDSP said the U.S. Department of Justice definition of an aging prison population is 55 years or older and reported that industry estimates place the cost to house aging individuals at roughly four times that of younger inmates. "In February 2023, total medical costs for the Nevada Department of Corrections were $16,139,035.44," NDSP reported, with hospital emergency-room visits and general office visits the largest components of that spending.

NDSP also reported that violence is the only offense-group that has shown a continued increase among the aging cohort, and that most aging individuals have one or two offenses on their current booking. The office said it has completed an aging-population study and was asked by the sentencing commission to analyze the young-adult population further.

On fentanyl, the presenters said NDSP now has arrest and conviction data under Nevada offense codes for fentanyl and derivatives through October 2024. Of 50 individuals with arrest charges involving fentanyl, ‘‘only 2 were convicted under the original charge, and both were through a guilty plea,’’ Powers said; at the time of that slide both had not yet entered Nevada Department of Corrections custody, NDSP added later that records were updated to show admission for those individuals.

Powers outlined additional NDSP work: publishing post-conviction population projections (currently produced by an outside vendor under statute), improving projection reports to support biennial budgeting, continued dashboard enhancements and public access, and several pending studies including young-adult offenders, habitual offenders, the NDOC female population, and misdemeanor sentencing trends.

Committee members asked whether recent increases in the prison population were attributable to Assembly Bill 236 (2019 reforms) or the COVID-19 population drop in 2020. Bonacorsi said the two events occurred close together and are difficult to separate; NDSP said it plans to continue studying drivers of population change. Members also pressed NDSP on gaps in local jail and probation data related to AB236 rerouting of cases to local systems; Powers said local data collection improvements and submission requirements should be considered.

NDSP encouraged continued financial support for local justice-reinvestment grants — the agency showed a slide listing selected awards from a $3,000,000 state fund that required a 30% local match — and recommended funding to improve NDOC and parole-and-probation data systems to support consistent population tracking.

NDSP said its contact information is available and that it will continue to expand its dashboards and publish neutral, data-driven analyses to help lawmakers assess the fiscal and operational effects of sentencing changes.