Bill that could bring change to the Nebraska prison system

Nebraska has recently introduced a bill that is attempting to bring reforms to the Nebraska prison system. It was introduced to the Nebraska Judicial Committee. Bill LB920 was introduced in 2020 and was put on pause for the time due to COVID-19. As of Jan. 21, LB920 was brought up again by Senators Steve Lathrop and Suzanne Geist. The debate has continued.

The bill is being debated in order to bring changes to inmates’ sentencing, release, reentry and supervision after release. The bill’s intention is to bring more changes to the system through education and rehabilitation training. Part of the reason why the bill was introduced was because of overpopulation in prisons. Additionally, it would aid the release process to support the transition from prison into the rest of the community.

Lathrop said, “We aren’t just in an overcrowding emergency, even if we built additional capacity and closed a dilapidated penitentiary, we will not be out of the overcrowding emergency. We will not have addressed overcrowding, we will have built additional capacity as we have tried to no avail.” Along with that, Geist said, “I contend that instead of changing sentencing, changing penalties, that we focus at a time when we have money coming into the state, we focus on that, so we can help our inmates actually get better and what better means is you don’t return to prison.”

The bill, if it passes, would focus corrections resources on violent and high-risk individuals, address significant regional differences across the state, minimize barriers to successful reentry, expand community-based services to increase treatment placement options and support law enforcement collaboration. It would also ensure the sustainability of criminal justice reforms. It would specifically include streamlining the parole process, improving reentry and modifying drug possession penalties to establish weight-based thresholds for misdemeanor possession of substances other than marijuana. In total there are 21 different specific improvements that the bill proposes.

This debate will probably go on for a long time. It will be the start of something that could become national. The hope is that the quality of life improves for prisoners in order for them to still feel they are human. Lathrop stated that “This isn’t ‘we feel sorry for people in prison.’ This is about what direction the State is going to take with respect to corrections. Are we going to try and build 200 beds a year and seemingly staff them? Or, will we be able to identify those people who we want in prison and how long they need to remain in prison to effectively accomplish public safety?”

https://nebraskalegislature.gov/bills/view_bill.php?DocumentID=47530

https://www.billtrack50.com/BillDetail/1414758

By TJ Pittenger