Senators propose letting some out; raising pay to fix prisons

Jan. 5, 2018, 5:23 a.m. ·

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Sen. Anna Wishart discusses prison reform as colleagues look on (Photo by Fred Knapp, NET News)

A group of state senators is proposing ways for Nebraska to deal with its overcrowded and understaffed prisons. But the proposals face an uncertain future in a tight budget year.


Incapacitated prisoners would be released. Corrections officers would be paid more to slow down turnover. Double bunking inmates in restricted housing would end. Those are among the proposals that a group of eight senators announced Friday in an attempt to improve the state’s troubled prison system. Sen. Paul Schumacher said officials have fallen into an all-too-familiar pattern in dealing with prison issues. “You talk, and you talk, and you study, and you study, and year after year, and you find out you’re going to study some more. Because that seems to be the universal answer when you don’t have money and are unwilling to finance what you know you have to do,” he said.

Schumacher estimated it could take $200 to $300 million to fix the prison system. He said this year’s proposals wouldn’t cost that much, but he didn’t have an estimate. One big-ticket item is likely to be Sen. Anna Wishart’s proposal to institute longevity pay for people who work in the prisons. Wishart explained what she sees as a big problem contributing to the high rate of turnover in the Department of Correctional Services. “The starting salary for a corporal is $18.16 an hour, which is $37,772 annually. Which is also the salary for a corporal who has been on the job for 10 years,” she said.

Wishart gave no details of how the plan would work, or how much it would cost. Prison pay is the subject of contract negotiations between the state employees’ union and the administration of Gov. Pete Ricketts. Ricketts’ spokesman Taylor Gage said most state prisons have the staff they need. But he acknowledged problems at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution and the Nebraska State Penitentiary. “Over the last couple months Corrections has been piloting a couple of different strategies at the state’s two largest facilities,” Gage said. “Among those is longevity pay at TSCI. They’re currently …piloting longevity pay at that facility and will be assessing its impact there.”

The sponsor of another part of the reform package, Sen. Bob Krist, said his proposal wouldn’t cost any money. Krist wants to move terminally ill and incapacitated prisoners out of prison, and into alternative settings. “Someone will say ‘How will you pay for that, Sen. Krist?’” at a time when the state faces a $173 million projected budget shortfall, Krist predicted. “My answer is ‘with the money that we’re using to have them in the prison system right now.’ The key here is we’re going to use that money, we’re going to move them into hospice, put them in areas where they live the rest of their life out and pass peacefully.”

Krist also said there are hundreds of people in prison who could be released, except for a lack of programs to get them ready. “We’ve got …I believe 402 people who are eligible for parole and haven’t had anger management training. What’s up with that? That should be a very simple program for us to follow through on,” he said.

Schumacher is proposing to end the practice of double-bunking inmates in restrictive housing, where some of the most difficult inmates live. Schumacher cited a case last year where a convicted forger was double-bunked with a convicted murderer and killed, supposedly for talking too much. That was, Schumacher said, “Absolutely unconscionable. But if you aren’t going to spend any money, necessary. Because where else are you going to put ‘em?

Other proposals in the prison package include requiring the Department of Correctional Services and the Parole Board to develop a plan to respond to an overcrowding emergency, and requiring the prison system to do a system-wide analysis to determine staffing needs.

Text of George Norris' speech

Also Friday, Sen. Laura Ebke marked the anniversary of the first meeting of the nonpartisan unicameral Legislature in 1937, by quoting from its promoter, U.S. Sen. George Norris, about the point of the experiment. “You are members of the first Legislature of Nebraska to hold your positions without any partisan political obligation to any machine, to any boss, or to any alleged political leader. Your constituents do not expect perfection. They know that it is human to err. But they do expect, and have the right to expect, absolute honesty, unlimited courage, and a reasonable degree of efficiency and wisdom,” Norris said. Ebke, a Libertarian, said it’s senators’ duty to live up to those nonpartisan ideals, and invited her colleagues to join her in the effort. That effort continues Monday with debate on rules, and on another attempt to repeal the state’s motorcycle helmet law.