LB 920 contained data-driven reforms developed after months of study of nonprison strategies to reduce prison overcrowding. Prison officials have expressed frustration that overcrowded prisons mean less space for needed rehabilitation programs. Some cells designed for one inmate are double bunked. The Nebraska prison system, the most overcrowded in the nation, regularly holds about 1,900 more inmates than its nine prisons were designed to house.ĭozens of inmates sleep on floor cots every night. Pete Ricketts, who portrayed the measure as “soft on crime.” That, in turn, could avoid the need to build more prisons, he argued.īut a proposal to do that, Legislative Bill 920, was shot down by opponents in the Legislature, along with Gov. ![]() The Omaha senator, who declined to seek re-election this year, was among the lawmakers pushing for changes in Nebraska’s sentencing laws to allow inmates who behave an earlier opportunity to be released on parole. ![]() “If there’s not some meaningful prison reform - which by the way will make our communities safer - then we’re looking at spending half a billion dollars to accommodate our prison population to the year 2030,” Lathrop said recently. Steve Lathrop of Omaha, who heads the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, said the response by Sabatka-Rine was the first time he can recall that state officials have acknowledged that a new prison is just the beginning of a spending spree on prison beds. If it’s refurbishing the State Pen, that’s a project the department has estimated would cost $220 million of taxpayer funds. I don’t know if that includes repurposing the penitentiary or if that includes other options that we’ve not yet explored,” Sabatka-Rine said. “We’ll need to have additional bed space. When asked at an October legislative hearing if the department will require additional prison beds, even after a proposed 1,500-bed prison is built to replace the State Pen, the state’s interim corrections director, Diane Sabatka-Rine, responded “yes.” ![]() That appeared to be a distinct possibility following a legislative hearing last fall about upcoming issues facing the Nebraska Department of Corrections. LINCOLN - Could Nebraskans be on the hook for building not only a $270 million replacement for the Nebraska State Penitentiary, but also for renovating the aging Penitentiary?
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