CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — One Nevada lawmaker says a sprawling criminal justice reform bill is likely the "single most important and transformative" legislation on the topic in the Legislature's history.
Democratic Assemblyman Steve Yeager told lawmakers at a bill hearing Friday morning that Nevada's criminal justice system is failing women and is falling short as a whole because offenders continue to reoffend while taxpayers see an increasing cost.
He says the incarceration rate for women in Nevada is 43 percent higher than the U.S. average.
Yeager and state Supreme Court Justice James Hardesty walked through the various aspects of the bill to lawmakers. The bill would re-classify certain crimes, raise the monetary threshold for a felony theft charge and provide greater support to offenders re-entering society, among other measures.