Nebraska's 10 state prisons from least to most crowded
Based on the average daily population in fiscal year 2021, according to the Nebraska Department of Corrections.
10. Nebraska Correctional Youth Facility
82.6% of design capacity
9. Nebraska Correctional Center for Women
98% of design capacity
8. Tecumseh State Correctional Institution
107.3% of design capacity
7. Community Corrections Center-Lincoln
132.4% of design capacity
6. Nebraska State Penitentiary
157.5% of design capacity
4. Work Ethic Camp
186.1% of design capacity
3. Community Corrections Center-Omaha
191.7% of design capacity
2. Omaha Correctional Center
193.6% of design capacity
1. Diagnostic and Evaluation Center
261.4% of design capacity
The Department of Correctional Services summoned a plumbing service to the 152-year-old penitentiary to fix leaky pipes. In the meantime, inmates and staff are using bottled water and portable toilets.
"I'm not looking to build a new prison to add more prison beds, to put more people in prison," Scott Frakes, director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, told a crowded town hall in north Omaha.
Assuming the union approves the agreement, starting wages for corrections corporals and prison caseworkers will rise from $20 an hour to $28 an hour. Sergeants will get a bump from $24 an hour to $32 an hour.
Nearly 32% of the latest defendants convicted on the habitual criminal enhancement in Nebraska are Black — an even starker racial disparity than already exists within state prisons.
Sen. Suzanne Geist voiced her frustration Thursday, saying she felt that she hadn't been heard. "I think that there's just not agreement among the group," she told senators.
The new 1,512-bed prison would replace the aging Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln.
A look at how past actions by lawmakers have played a role in Nebraska's nation-leading incarceration spike.
Sarah Nelson Torsiello had worked for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services for more than 18 years, starting in August 2003. The department announced her arrest and resignation late Tuesday night.
Recent raises demonstrate the problem, Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha said. “These people deserve to be well paid for what they do. $56 an hour to work overtime? That’s not sustainable if that’s your business model and you don’t get to fully staffed."
Nebraska's tough 2009 law sent offenders to a state prison cell instead of a federal one. Besides the cost to Nebraska taxpayers, the shift meant inmates were better able to keep local gang ties.
Police have worked hand in hand with affected communities to employ all-new tactics, including a beefed-up gang specialty unit, shot detection technology and enhanced rewards for tips.
Seventeen employees of Nebraska’s prison system more than doubled the size of their paychecks during the past fiscal year. How? They made more in overtime pay than they did in base salary, according to data provided by the state.
Prosecutors and law enforcement officers objected to proposed sentencing reforms included in a Nebraska bill that aims to reduce prison overcrowding and recidivism.
Three of the men had refused the vaccine when the prison offered it, according to transcripts filed recently in the Lancaster County District Court.
The proposed 10% limit on markup would cost the department an estimated $1.1 million in commissary revenue, according to a fiscal impact statement. In fiscal year 2021, the commissaries generated total net revenue of $1.5 million.
Nebraska’s corrections director made an urgent pitch for a replacement of the Nebraska State Penitentiary, saying the facility has outlived its useful life and is ill-serving the state and inmates.
Puom Gach pleaded no contest to first-degree sexual assault, use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony and attempted first-degree arson.
Sarah Nelson Torsiello is accused of kissing and groping a 37-year-old who is serving a life sentence, according to the affidavit for her arrest.
Staff at the facility found the 34-year-old corporal had a beverage can with a hidden compartment as he entered the prison for work Friday, according to the affidavit for his arrest.
Unknowns surround a potential new prison with a $270 million price tag, pitched to state lawmakers by Nebraska Corrections Director Scott Frakes.
Nebraska locks up people of color at higher rates than the U.S. as a whole. The gaps between its low white incarceration rate and high rates for racial minorities are among the widest in the country.
The new lawsuit alleges Nebraska's policy unconstitutionally restricts the group's First Amendment right to free speech and its right to due process because it wasn't allowed to appeal the decision.
Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha argued for prison reform recommendations as the Legislature considered a budget bill that includes setting aside funding for a new state prison.
Anthony Washington now sees his devotion to his gang as a “false idolization” that helped steer him to prison.
When Shakur Abdullah speaks to prison inmates who are preparing to transition back to society, he counsels them not to give up hope they can turn their lives around.
After his office investigated trends in walkaway incidents, Inspector General Doug Koebernick highlighted the lack of mental health care, rampant drug use and disparities in the punishment of men and women found guilty of escape.
Sen. Steve Lathrop noted that under current projections, the state’s prisons would add an additional 1,300 inmates by 2030. The state would need yet another prison on top of the $270 million prison the governor has been pushing.
Efforts to slow Nebraska’s nation-leading prison growth and overcrowding collapsed in the Legislature Wednesday.
Dozens of states, many led by Republicans, have embraced criminal justice reform. But an effort in Nebraska, home of the nation’s fastest-growing prison system, collapsed last month. Why did it fail?
The facility has been on a modified, seven-day, 12-hour operational schedule since October 2019, when an emergency staffing declaration was made.
Prosecutors had charged the 35-year-old Hoskins man as a habitual criminal; he would've faced a minimum of 10 years in prison if he was convicted.
"It was evident that she was experiencing a miscarriage. Still, defendants provided neither medical nor emotional support," attorney Maren Chaloupka said.
Soon after getting out of prison, DeShawn Gleaton Jr. started dating Hailey Christiansen, a 29-year-old who believed in second chances. She quickly found herself in a violent relationship.
The man and another inmate left the Community Corrections Center-Lincoln on May 21, 2020, according to the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services.
In a decision Tuesday, Court of Appeals Judge David Arterburn said the defense motion was premature and that time remained on Eric Ramos's speedy trial clock when it was filed.
Sarah Torsiello engaged in activity she "absolutely knew was wrong," Lancaster County District Judge Jodi Nelson said Wednesday.
An inmate at the Reception and Treatment Center in Lincoln assaulted a staff member Tuesday, causing injuries that required treatment at the hospital.
The cause of death has not been determined, but officials say he was being treated for a medical condition.
Though several inmates were involved in the killing during Nebraska's 2017 Tecumseh prison riot, Eric Ramos was the only inmate charged. His trial began Wednesday.
A 46-year-old inmate who died Friday in the Scotts Bluff County Jail has been identified.
"All we know is that that day a group of inmates decided to play God, to take life away from Michael Galindo," the prosecutor said in closing arguments.
A jury found Eric Ramos guilty of first-degree murder for the killing of a fellow inmate during a riot at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution in 2017.
A judge sentenced Eric Ramos to life in prison plus 60 to 80 years for the brutal killing of a fellow inmate nearly six years ago during a riot at Nebraska's Tecumseh State Correctional Institution.
