Sen. Terrell McKinney has the right idea with LB919, a bill he introduced recently that would require the state to demolish the Nebraska State Penitentiary once a new prison north of Lincoln opens in 2027.

McKinney’s bill, which echoes an amendment he brought last May as the Legislature was debating funding for the new $350 million prison, is designed to hold the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services and Gov. Jim Pillen accountable.

“If we need to build a new prison, we need to tear down the one (the state) said was old and dilapidated and couldn’t work for anybody,” McKinney told the Journal Star. “My assumption is they are going to try to keep it open and lower the custody and keep it more medium or minimum (security).”

Construction on the new 1,512-bed prison north of Interstate 80 near McKelvie Road is scheduled to begin later this year. At last year’s announcement of the new prison’s location, Correctional Services Director Rob Jeffreys said the 1,200-bed State Penitentiary that opened in 1869 would be “decommissioned” once the new prison opens.

Decommission, however, is not the same as demolish. And McKinney’s suspicion that the administration would attempt to refurbish the penitentiary so it could continue to hold incarcerated people is well founded.

Put simply, the Legislature and administration have consistently rejected criminal justice reform efforts that would ease Nebraska’s worst-in-the-nation prison overcrowding crisis and initially proposed a new prison that would add more than 1,000 beds to the system, with the penitentiary continuing to operate.

That proposal rightfully drew significant opposition.

But when water leaks that closed housing units at the penitentiary and other issues that would send repair costs well into the millions, the replacement prison was widely supported as a necessity, not as an addition to the system that includes the Omaha Correctional Center, the Tecumseh State Correctional Center and the Reception and Treatment Center on West Van Dorn Street.

Repairing the damage at the penitentiary and getting the aging facility up to contemporary standards was seen as too expensive and difficult to be feasible. That cost standard should also be applied to any consideration of refurbishing the penitentiary to serve as a minimum or medium security facility.

The costs alone should make it clear to the administration and Legislature that the penitentiary should be “demolished.” And, if it is believed another new prison is necessary, it should be proposed and approved by the Legislature, not slipped in through a “refurbishing” backdoor.

The penitentiary, at Nebraska Parkway and 14th Street might not need to be torn to the ground. The facility could, perhaps, be reworked to serve another state purpose.

But it should never again house incarcerated persons. Doing so would be disingenuous and short-sighted.

The state will never be able to build itself out of the overcrowding crisis, even with a bait-and-switch at the penitentiary that McKinney’s bill is aimed at preventing.

This editorial first appeared in the Lincoln Journal Star on January 13, 2024. It was distributed by The Associated Press.