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The inspector general for Nebraska prisons wants a new correctional facility in Lincoln for dangerous inmates to open in a slow, controlled manner.
That recommendation, and more, come from the inspector general’s latest report, published Wednesday. The report also details how similar “controlled movement units” in York and Tecumseh have fallen below state regulations.
The 29-page report made 10 recommendations for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services – eight of which the department rejected.
The Intervention/Improvement Unit in Tecumseh serves men with disruptive behavior, and the Behavior Intervention and Programming Unit in York serves women. Even though those facilities are advertised by the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services as general population units, inspector general Doug Koebernick said they aren’t.
“We just wanted to make sure that it was clear that those units are not quite what they seem,” Koebernick said.
The department, according to the report, is struggling to provide the required 24 hours of out-of-cell time per week.
The Tecumseh facility “has not operated in accordance with program guidance” and the department hasn’t “consistently provided IIU with necessary resources and oversight,” according to the report.
The new, 384-bed Reception and Treatment Center in Lincoln will not be a general population unit, if it’s “operated as anticipated,” according to the report. And that’s why Koebernick wants to slow down the opening of the new facility and prioritize moving inmates carefully into the facility.
“If you were to move all those people in there at one time, you're going to have a lot of problems,” Koebernick said.
The department of corrections hasn’t established a timeframe for exactly when the new facility will open.
The report also recommends:
- Developing a clear process to determining who live at the Lincoln facility, and when they can be released back into the general population
- Assigning one full-time mental health professional for the new center
- Incentivizing positive behavior
- Establishing a real yard for women’s facility in York
For the existing facilities in Tecumseh and York, Koebernick would like all staff to get body cameras and be better trained. He’d also like the department to issue reports on its controlled movement units to the state legislature.
Of the 10 recommendations, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services accepted two: creating the yard in York and moving inmates into the new facility in Lincoln carefully.
The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services declined to give an interview or provide a statement for this story, citing the responses included in the report.
“It's too bad that the department didn't decide to take up especially the body cameras,” said Mike Chipman, the president of the union that represents the facilities’ employees. “Those really helped keep staff safe.”
Chipman said he’d also like staff at the Lincoln facility to get stab-proof vests – like staff have in Tecumseh – but corrections didn’t approve that either.
Those will be some of the top priorities for Chipman and other union representatives when they begin negotiations with a new administration. Former corrections director Scott Frakes retired last week. Nebraska’s next governor will appoint the department’s next leader.
If executed correctly, both Koebernick and Chipman said the new facility in Lincoln could provide a pressure release in a system that’s still plagued with staffing and capacity issues. However, Chipman thinks the corrections department is getting better for the employees – especially after a new union contract last year.
“Morale has increased. Mandatory overtime has gone down significantly,” he said. “So, definitely, we have seen some significant improvements.”