Records Released in Review of Overcrowding in State Prisons
Nebraska’s court system agreed to release a nonprofit group’s analysis of state criminal justice data after the governor’s office refused to release the information.
The judicial branch released almost 100 pages of reports the nonprofit Crime and Justice Institute has presented to a group of officials who are trying to decide how to address Nebraska’s prison overcrowding.
The Omaha World-Herald, which had filed public records requests for the documents, reported that the director of the ACLU of Nebraska, Danielle Conrad, praised the decision to release the records last Friday.
“We really need to look hard at this data and this information and look hard at solutions,” Conrad told the newspaper.
The reports show that Nebraska’s prison population grew by 21% between 2011 and 2020 even though overall admissions to the system decreased. Over that same time period, prison admissions with mandatory minimum sentences more than doubled. And the minimum sentence length for inmates was also up 25%, so inmates are staying longer.
The reports also show that while 1 in 25 Nebraskans are Black, roughly 1 in 5 people admitted into Nebraska prisons are Black.
State Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha, who is part of the state group reviewing Nebraska’s prison overcrowding said the data from the nonprofit group can help the state decide what to do to respond to the problem.
“There are opportunities for changes that can allow us to invest our state dollars in more effective criminal justice measures,” said Lathrop, who leads the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee.
The Governor’s Office had denied The World-Herald’s request for the records, saying they were in “draft” form. The World-Herald said it has asked Attorney General Doug Peterson to review that denial. In an email to the newspaper last Friday afternoon, Ricketts spokesman Taylor Gage maintained the office’s previous determination, saying the release “does not change the fact that they are drafts” and didn’t have to be released.
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