Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo said he hopes county commissioners take the American Civil Liberties Union letter seriously and start planning a new Pahrump jail.

DeMeo is scheduled to meet with consultants Ira Cotler and Russell Rau May 14 to talk about what's needed in a new jail. They will be accompanied by representatives of an architectural firm.

Cotler is the managing director of Correctional Finance and Consulting Solutions. He was awarded a contract back in April 2008 to prepare different jail options. Rau is his partner.

DeMeo warned if the county commission doesn't take a proactive approach after the ACLU inspection "then they're going to just file a case with a federal court and the judge is going to decide what gets built there."

"I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be a defendant on this. It was pretty much directed at the county commissioners, which is responsible for the jail," DeMeo said. "They have the budget authority I don't have."

The sheriff said he personally invited the Department of Justice to inspect the jail back in 2003. He said every county commissioner since has been served notice of the Institute of Corrections report that followed that inspection.

"Since I was elected in November of 2002, I went on a tour of the jails and I was promised by the Nye County Commission they'd put it on the agenda and by the end of December 2003 we'd be putting a shovel to the ground," DeMeo said.

While the county commission spent money to acquire the Calvada Eye and is now spending almost $5 million to expand the justice center, DeMeo said they neglected to build a new jail which is more likely to draw litigation.

While most people arrested in Pahrump are soon transported to the Tonopah jail until their court hearings, some judges and lawyers ask that prisoners be confined in the Pahrump jail, he said.

"At times we don't have the necessary room in Tonopah because of their classification," DeMeo said.

While the report notes a manpower shortage at the Pahrump jail, DeMeo said there's also a shortage of deputies at the Tonopah jail, which can house up to 88 inmates.

There was talk in the past of hiring a medical assistant to supervise inmates, he said.

Regarding the separation of male and female inmates, DeMeo said, "By law there has to be separation by sight. One of the disturbing things is we have to put aluminum foil in there, and we don't have full oversight of the female cell."

Nye County Manager Rick Osborne downplayed the likely effect of the ACLU letter. It was never discussed in open session by the county commission nor included in backup for the meetings.

"We had already begun working on this new jail before that letter was ever composed," Osborne said.

"All it does is reinforces the fact we need to do that. But we already knew that."

Osborne said the consultants plan to give some concepts to the sheriff and decide what size jail needs to be built.

While Nye County is now in a tight financial situation due to the slumping economy, Osborne said the county's federal lobbyist, Rick Spees, will attempt to secure a no-interest bond to build a new jail. Cotler raised the possibility of U.S. Department of Agriculture grants, he said.

Osborne said he's already talked with Cotler and Rau.

"It's just been a series of teleconferences to try to identify the things that are important for them to incorporate in this facility once we decide what size it will be. That's all it's been, it's very preliminary at this point," Osborne said.

Back in 2003 DeMeo suggested county commissioners build a 500-bed jail in Pahrump. He suggested any unused space could be leased to other agencies to house prisoners at $80 per night.

Two years ago, DeMeo attempted to interest county officials in building a jail and leasing space to private businesses like Corrections Corporation of America instead of building a federal detention center.