Las Vegas NowNevada Prison Inmates Building 'Big House Choppers'

Legislators have been told that the Nevada prison industries program should soon have the necessary approvals to sell high-priced, convict-made motorcycles -- through its "Big House Choppers" venture.

Howard Skolnik runs the prison industries program. He told a legislative oversight panel that payment of a 15-thousand-dollar licensing fee to the state Department of Motor Vehicles will clear the way for sale the custom choppers -- at 40-thousand dollars or more apiece.

Skolnik says buyers will even get a certificate that pieces of scrapped prison cell bars went into their bikes -- in the form of five-inch-long fender supports.

Only two convicts are now working on the choppers and already have produced their first, a cherry-colored motorcycle with a big engine and a prison guard tower painted on it. But the program eventually will employ 20 to 30 convicts.

Skolnik also says he's had inquiries about setting up dealerships in several states.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)