Tom Harris, P.E., president of Harris Consulting Engineers (HCE), compares his company’s work on High Desert State Prison to designing a small, self-contained city in the desert. Funding for the minimum-security prison was approved by the Nevada Legislature in 1993 in order to ease overcrowding in other state facilities. In 1995, HCE started work on designs for the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), plumbing and electrical systems for the project. Phase I was completed in September, and 1,000 men are now housed at the prison, located near Indian Springs, about 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The remoteness of the site presented difficulties in ensuring access to power and water. Nevada Power Company had to run lines to serve the 160-acre site, located two miles away from the 18-year-old Southern Desert Correctional Center. Security concerns made it necessary to provide standby generators capable of supplying the facility with full power for an indefinite period. A central plant with three 1,750-kilowatt generators now provides over five megawatts of standby power. Four storage tanks containing 40,000 gallons of oil for the generators contain enough fuel to power the prison for about a week, according to Harris. Wells were drilled to provide water for the prison, and HCE designed the systems to bring power to the wells and their pumping stations. Three reservoir tanks now hold 3.1 million gallons of water. HCE also designed the sewer system inside each building and the piping for all services, which is contained in underground pipes around the outside of the buildings. The HVAC system Harris Engineers designed for the prison is one of the largest cooling systems in Southern Nevada, with four 500-horsepower boilers.
During construction, HCE provided construction review and shop drawing review services, fielding questions from subcontractors about how to interpret their drawings and specifications. “The consulting engineers are the owner’s eyes and ears in the field,” said Harris. “We make sure the systems are built according to our designs, so they will operate according to the specifications designated by the owner, in this case, the Nevada Public Works Board. Our people traveled to the site several times a month to make sure work was progressing according to plan.”
The prison buildings are clustered together in a triangle surrounding a central 50-acre courtyard containing three basketball courts. Two miles of 12-foot fence, charged with 5,000 volts of electricity, surround the area. Once touched, the fence’s charge jumps to 20,000 volts, enough to prove lethal. The buildings are constructed from unpainted precast concrete slabs and cinder block. Each of the two-story housing units is shaped like a bow tie, with cells on each triangular end and a control area in the central section. The housing units each contain 164 double-occupancy cells and four cells designed to accommodate handicapped inmates.
Phase I of the High Desert State Prison project provided for the construction of four housing units and three guard towers, as well as nine other structures. The prison facility is entirely self-contained. There is a 26,000-square-foot infirmary complete with dental and X-ray capabilities, a full laundry, an armory building which also contains kennels for six guard dogs, and a culinary building with six dining rooms capable of serving up to 7,500 meals a day. Phase II of the project, which is scheduled to be completed by year-end, will provide four more housing units, as well as a 35,000-square- foot warehouse/motor pool building. Funding from the next legislative session will be needed to pay for additional construction and employees for the third phase, which would add four more housing units, increasing the total capacity to 4,000 inmates.
Everything at the prison was designed with security in mind, and had to be tamper-proof and vandalism-proof. The cells all have stainless steel toilets and sinks, and inmates’ beds are constructed of ¼-inch steel plate. Stainless steel is more durable than ceramic, explained Harris, and less likely to be broken off and turned into a weapon. A special “pick-proof” grout was used to seal all joints, and every wall and roof contains a security bar system. Even the sheet metal used in the air duct system is a heavier gauge, said Harris. Centralized control systems allow guards to control everything from lighting to water to flushing the toilet in each cell. They can even turn off individual power outlets if necessary. This gives prison officials the opportunity to control inmate behavior from a remote location. Security consultants specializing in prison construction planned the control systems, but HCE designed telephone, data and communications systems.
HCE has been engaged in the private practice of professional mechanical and electrical engineering in the greater Las Vegas area for 17 years. With a staff of over 40 people, it is one of the largest HVAC, plumbing and electrical engineering firms in the region.
