Water Service Outage at Prison Raises New Concerns
Nebraska’s largest and oldest state prison lost running water because of a plumbing issue, forcing inmates and staffers to use bottled water and portable toilets and raising concerns about conditions at the facility.
Officials at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln said they had to shut off the water last week when they discovered numerous leaks in the facility’s old, brittle pipes. Laura Strimple, a spokeswoman for the state corrections department, said in an email that crews had restored water service to all but one housing unit by the next afternoon, and the prison was back to full normal operations early the following morning.
State Sen. Terrell McKinney visited the prison last Wednesday and said he saw toilets filled with human waste. He said he was told that prisoners were getting two water bottles a day, but some complained that they had only received one, and a few prisoners were using mop buckets to shower.
“From what I saw, it was horrible,” McKinney said. “You could smell it when you walked in.”
Prison officials said the problem demonstrates the need for a new $230 million facility proposed by Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts. But some state lawmakers, including McKinney, an Omaha Democrat, argue that a new prison isn’t necessary, especially when other states are closing prisons to save money.
The Nebraska State Penitentiary was built in 1869 and houses minimum, medium and maximum security inmates. It has undergone several renovations over past decades, but corrections officials have argued that it’s no longer cost-effective to upgrade the facility with an average population of nearly 1,300 inmates. Nebraska’s corrections department has identified $60 million in maintenance projects that are needed throughout the prison system, including $12.5 million at the state penitentiary.
“There are limits to how much work can be completed at any given time within a fully occupied prison,” Strimple said. “The issue has never been money, it’s a reflection of an aging infrastructure.”
In a statement, Nebraska Department of Correctional Services Director Scott Frakes said building a new prison is “the smartest investment” the state can make to securely house inmates.
“Otherwise, we will never get out of the ongoing cycle of making repairs — repairs that are even more expensive due to the age of the facility and the issues with working around a higher security population,” he said.
The prison’s water system has faced numerous problems for years, including five water main breaks between December 2017 and September 2018, according to an independent watchdog agency that oversees the corrections department.
In September 2018, one water main broke in two areas on consecutive days, according to a report by the Office of the Inspector General of the Nebraska Correctional System. Inspector General Doug Koebernick wrote in the report that it “appears as though it will be a regular issue due to the aging infrastructure of the facility.”
James Davis III, a deputy state ombudsman for Nebraska corrections, said Thursday he was investigating the matter after getting complaints from inmates and their families.
McKinney said he remains opposed to building a new prison and would rather see prison officials focus on upgrading the existing state prison. He said building another, larger facility doesn’t make sense, given the chronic staffing shortages within the corrections department.
“I would say the situation should be a concern for all Nebraskans,” McKinney said.
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