Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Nebraska in the news: Racial disparities in the state's prison and jails



Two wrongs don't make a right

On Friday, the state’s 10 prisons — already the second-most overcrowded prisons in the nation — held 5,660 prisoners, which is about 400 more inmates than two years ago and about 1,100 more than projected four years ago.

A better idea

State Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha, a leading legislator on corrections issues, said he’ll introduce a bill when the State Legislature convenes this week to begin planning a community corrections facility, which could cost upward of $40 million. 
As of Friday, state prisons held 2,006 more inmates than their design capacity of 3,535 inmates. Nebraska’s prisons are currently the second-most overcrowded in the nation at 157% of capacity, trailing only Alabama, which is under federal order to address its overcrowding problem.

No comments: