Lawmakers Advance Planning, but Not Building, a New Prison

Nebraska lawmakers Friday advanced a proposal to plan for a new prison, without committing to definitely build one.

Nebraska’s prisons hold nearly 50 percent more people than they were designed for. That’s why Gov. Pete Ricketts is proposing a new, 1,500 bed facility. That would cost the state $230 million. The Legislature’s Appropriations Committee has set aside half that money in its proposed budget, but hasn’t authorized spending it yet.

Friday, Committee Chair Sen. John Stinner offered an amendment to the budget that would give the state permission to spend $14.9 million on designing, planning, and selecting a site for the prison. Committee Vice Chair Sen. Anna Wishart said that wasn’t a final decision.

“We, and I will say especially me, continue to take an approach that there is much more due diligence that needs to be done before we would ever, if ever, allow a for shovel to hit the dirt in building a new facility,” Wishart said.

Part of that “due diligence” is an upcoming study by the federally-funded Criminal Justice Institute on how the state can prevent people from returning to prison after being released. Sen. Steve Lathrop, chair of the Judiciary Committee, said that should point the way to what the state should do.

“Might it involve building these 1,500 beds? It could. It might not be necessary, too. We should know all that in the fall,” Lathrop said.

Sen. John Cavanaugh opposed the idea of starting planning for a new prison, comparing it to slowly cooking a frog.

“I feel like this is the frog in the pot where this is the first step of turning up the knob. And just give a little taste, a little bit of a site plan, a little bit of preparation, and then we come back in a couple years and we’re allocating more money, and eventually we’re too far down the road to stop,” Cavanaugh said.

Sen. Megan Hunt said she didn’t think the Department of Correctional Services, which proposed the new prison, would change its mind.

“There’s no evidence that at any point Corrections is going to say ‘Oh, you know, we did the research and we looked at the numbers and we looked around and talked to people, it turns out we don’t need a new prison.’ Like, there’s no realistic reason to think that that’s going to be the outcome,” Hunt said.

And Sen. Terrell McKinney, who represents north Omaha, questioned how the project might contribute to Nebraska’s disproportionate incarceration of Black people.

“What if a disproportionate amount of your constituents was in prison right now? Would you stand up and support a prison? Or would you think about maybe we need some alternatives. Maybe we need to look at why these individuals are ending up in our criminal justice system. Maybe we need to address poverty. Maybe we need to improve our schools,” McKinney said.

Sen. Mike Groene, who represents North Platte, said most of the criminals in his area are White, and they need to be separated from the general population.

“We have a duty to public safety. We need to separate them from society – separate ‘em from their peers who are causing them problems – that’s part of incarceration, too. So let’s get this rolling. Maybe by then, the next Legislature that addresses it creates a huge treatment center on that spot. But we’ve gotta get it rolling. We have the problem. We just can’t kick it down the road. We need to start,” Groene said.

And Sen. Stinner said despite some adamant opposition, the state needs to address prison overcrowding, and find a way to deal with the aging Nebraska State Penitentiary. Stinner touted the study by the Criminal Justice Institute, or CJI, and said his amendment, numbered 911, was a balanced way forward.

“I get the fact that there’s a group in here, no matter what we say, no matter what we do, nobody wants to build the prison. But you’ve got one that’s wearing out. It’s going to cost you a ton of money to keep it going. So you make the decision over the next year CJI comes it, master plan gets done, we have confidence in what the numbers are…But we’ve got to get started folks. 911 is the appropriate number for this. We’re on fire,” Stinner said.

Sen. Justin Wayne said acceptance of Stinner’s amendment was tantamount to agreeing to build a new prison.

“What are we doing? We’re building a new prison that’s going to be overpopulated by the time it’s handed to the state as substantially completed,” Wayne said.

Sen. Suzanne Geist said the state should move forward on alternatives to incarceration, but more prison space is also needed.

“If you don’t want a new prison, then who are you going to let out? Right now, we’re letting people out early, quickly, because we have no space. That ends up being a public safety issue. So how many are you going to let out who aren’t ready, because you don’t want to build a place with space?” Geist said.

After a daylong debate, senators voted 27-7 against an amendment that would have stripped planning money for the new prison out of the budget bill for capital construction. They then gave the bill first round approval on a vote of 37-3.