Legislative investigation probes too-early release of prisoners

George Green, former top lawyer for the Department of Correctional Services, was the focus of a legislative investigative hearing Thursday on the premature release of hundreds of people from Nebraska prisons.

The first person to testify was Linda Willard, a former assistant attorney general. Willard said she sent the Department of Correctional Services the Nebraska Supreme Court’s 2013 opinion that said the department was calculating sentences incorrectly.

Then-Records Manager Jeannene Douglass replied that the court was wrong. But Willard said because Green had also been informed of the court’s decision, she assumed the Department would follow the law.

Omaha Sen. Bob Krist suggested she should have done more. "I don’t think there was enough follow-through in the Department of Corrections to keep the state of Nebraska from breaking the law. And therefore I don’t think the attorney general or anyone in this chain did their job," Krist said

"I had a stack of cases on my desk and a stack of cases on the desk of the people I supervised. And we were working overtime, often, to get through those. I could not do everything that needed to be done," replied Willard.

Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers said that by passing "get-tough-on-crime" laws, the Legislature had contributed to the prison overcrowding that created pressure for early releases. "A lot of this can be placed right at the doorstep of the Legislature – legislators who do not properly carry out our responsibilities and functions," Chambers said.

Douglass said former Corrections Director Bob Houston was worried about prison overcrowding, and favored the department’s early release policies. Houston has said he no one told him about the Supreme Court decision. Douglass said her opinion was that the pressure to release people early came from higher up. "It’s kind of like when you’re showing your dog in a dog show. How you feel travels right down that leash to that dog," she said. The same thing was happening here."

Gov. Dave Heineman has blamed the Department of Correctional Services for the early releases, but said the releases were not a response to prison overcrowding. Heineman and his administration have not endorsed building new prisons.

Columbus Sen. Paul Schumacher said early in the day that it appeared former Corrections lawyer George Green could wind up as the highest-ranking state official to be held responsible. "What we have here is the director of corrections can claim plausible deniability. The attorney general can claim plausible deniability. The chief of staff of the governor can claim plausible deniability. The governor can – ‘Nobody told me that we had a problem,’" Schumacher said. "It would look like in that particular scenario Mr. Green is the fall guy." Green was the last person to testify. Lathrop asked Green about an email in which Jeannene Douglass asked for his input on whether the Department’s policy on releasing inmates squared with the Supreme Court’s decision. Lathrop said it was an obvious question, and the Court’s opinion was attached to the email.

"You didn’t open it up and read the case?" Lathrop asked.

"I did not," Green said.

"How come?" Lathrop asked.

"Well, I wish I would have in retrospect, obviously. But I’m like everybody else – I’ve got 15 million things to do," Green said.

Instead, Green said, he asked Records Administrator Kyle Poppert if the Department was following the law as clarified by the Supreme Court decision. Green said Poppert assured him the law was being followed. Earlier in the day, Poppert said he was relying on Green for guidance.

Schumacher questioned Green’s reliance on Douglass and Poppert to inform him about the court’s ruling. "So you’re the chief lawyer. You are asking two non-lawyers or relying on their opinions as to the interpretation of a Supreme Court case you’ve never read?" Schumacher asked.

"That is the way that worked out," Green responded.

Chambers asked Green if reading the case wouldn’t have been the best way to find out about the situation. "So it was incompetent on your part not to do that, wasn’t it?" Chambers asked.

"I should have read the case," Green replied.

In fact, Green said, he did not read the case until around the time the Omaha World-Herald broke the story about the early release of prisoners. That was in June, 2014, a year and four months after the court’s decision.

The committee is expected to meet again in about two weeks.