LINCOLN — A leading state senator guaranteed Tuesday that Nebraska will need to build a new state prison if it cannot address problems causing prison overcrowding.
Such a prison would cost in excess of $100 million, according to State Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha.
“I will absolutely guarantee to the citizens of this state, if we don't get better at preventing crime, (providing) early offender programs, reducing recidivism of inmates and bridging the gap between prison and jobs, we'll be building a new prison,” Ashford said.
Ashford, the chairman of the legislative committee that deals with crime issues, spoke as a blue-ribbon task force of legislators is set to begin the pursuit for answers to prison overcrowding in the state.
The Legislature's Sentencing and Recidivism Committee will hold its first meeting today at the State Capitol in what is planned to be a year-and-a-half probe into issues — such as rehabilitation, sentencing equality and job training — that affect prison populations and repeat offenses.
The group's work took on urgency this April, when state correctional facilities exceeded 140 percent of capacity, an overcrowding benchmark that requires an alert to the governor, who can declare an emergency.
Gov. Dave Heineman declined to do that, and since then, the prison population has wavered just above and just below the 140 percent mark. It stood at 140.5 percent of capacity, or 4,461 inmates, as of Tuesday, according to a state corrections spokesman.
Some predict that a new anti-gang crime bill passed this spring will increase the strain on prisons because it includes longer sentences, as well as mandatory minimum sentences, for violent, gang-related crimes.
In Iowa, concerns about overcrowding have eased because of efforts to speed nonviolent criminals through the system.
The Iowa prison system stood at 113 percent of capacity Tuesday, down from 122 percent in 2007, said Fred Scaletta of the Iowa Department of Corrections.
Nationwide, more than half the states and the District of Columbia are looking at ways to reduce the growth of prison populations through new sentencing alternatives, or new parole and probation programs, said Adam Gelb, director of the public safety performance program of the Pew Center on the States,
A driving force is money, Gelb said, particularly rising prison costs and declining state revenues.
Nebraska, for instance, spent $95.48 per day to keep an inmate in prison in 2008, compared with $2.15 per day in 2006 to supervise them in parole or probation programs — 45 times less.
“The research points to a wide array of strategies that can hold down crime at less cost than prisons,” Gelb said. “Well-placed, research-based community corrections programs are not only cheaper but reduce crime more in the long run.”
One example, he said, is a Pew Center-assisted program in Nebraska, run through the state Community Corrections Council, that provides intensive supervision of low-risk drug offenders as an alternative to prison.
State Sen. Tony Fulton of Lincoln said money and the costs of incarceration are big issues for him as a member of the Nebraska Legislature's sentencing task force.
Fulton, who is also a member of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee, said that if statistics indicate that sentences and programs for certain offenders are leading to higher-than-expected rates of repeat offenses (called recidivism), then other options need to be explored.
“Public safety is pretty important,” he said. “We're not going to turn dangerous criminals loose to save a buck, but I want to see if we have other options before us” other than building a new prison.
Nebraska's newest state prison, in Tecumseh, opened in 2001. The 960-bed facility cost $74 million. When it opened, the state's prison population dropped from nearly 170 percent of capacity to 116 percent.
Iowa reduced overcrowding by reclassifying more inmates as low security, thus speeding their path to out-of-prison alternative programs, Scaletta said.
More emphasis was also placed on programs that were working, he said, including education. Statistics indicate, Scaletta said, that inmates were 22 percent less likely to re-offend if they left prison with a high school diploma.
Ashford said his primary goal was to reduce recidivism rates, especially among young offenders.
Currently, 25.4 percent of those leaving Nebraska prisons will commit another crime or violate parole within three years, said Kyle Poppert of the Nebraska Department of Corrections.
Ashford said that by working with young, first-time offenders, the state could prevent future violent and gun-related crimes and save thousands in criminal justice costs.
The anti-gang bill includes money for crime prevention programs, such as those that have dramatically reduced homicides in places like Cincinnati and Chicago.
Ashford said he is also interested in the success of education programs and programs like one started at the Valmont center-pivot irrigation plant in McCook. That factory offers welding and machinist jobs to inmates from a local Work Ethic Camp who undergo training courses.
The task force will select a chairman today and provide direction on what issues to investigate. It is set up like a special committee that is probing problems at the Beatrice State Developmental Center. That committee is not scheduled to complete its work until January 2011.
Ashford said that a significant amount of time is needed for a probe to address such complex issues.
“Part of the role of sentencing is justice, and part is offering a specific deterrence to crime by getting criminals off the streets,” he said. “But sentencing should also have another societal role: to deter and prevent further crime. I just want to know more about that.”
Contact the writer:
402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com
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