A team of national experts gave Nebraska a road map Wednesday on how best to reform its troubled prison system.
The Council of State Governments, which has been the national leader in reforming prison systems, sent a team at no cost to Nebraska to examine the prison system, talk with criminal justice professionals and meet with an ad-hoc committee led by Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, who is spearheading the reform effort.
"This has been a crash course for us," said Marc Pelka, who was part of the CSG team.
The CSG is leading a national movement called “justice reinvestment†aimed at reducing the prison population through things such as enhanced probation options and mental health and re-entry programs for inmates returning to their communities. So far, 18 states are using the program.
Ashford has said repeatedly that too many people are being sent to Nebraska prisons who likely don't need to be there.
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Nebraska's nine prisons have room for 3,175 inmates and hold about 4,730 — 149 percent of capacity. That's projected to hit 188 percent by 2020 unless changes are made in how Nebraska treats offenders. Reaching 140 percent of capacity triggers a report to the governor, who can declare an emergency, although Gov. Dave Heineman has not done so. That level also can be a benchmark federal judges use to order construction of new cells.
A new prison would cost at least $120 million and likely would be at or near capacity the day it opened.
Meanwhile, two inmates at the Tecumseh State Correctional Facility filed a lawsuit in Lancaster District Court last week alleging that the overcrowding is causing them emotional distress and creating a dangerous situation, among other things.
The CSG team gave some sobering statistics to emphasize the need for prison reform:
* Nationally, the number of people in prison declined 4 percent from 2010 to 2012. But Nebraska's prison population grew by 3 percent during the same period.
* Nebraska's violent crime rate declined 23 percent from 2000 to 2011, but its incarceration rate increased 7 percent.
* Between 2002 and 2013, Nebraska's prison population grew 21 percent, while its corrections budget grew by just 7 percent.
* More than one-third of the inmates released from Nebraska's prison get no supervision. But data shows that 51 percent of those receiving no supervision upon release will re-offend within three years. Conversely, North Carolina has bolstered post-prison supervisory programs for inmates, which will save the state $560 million by 2017 and allow the closing of five state prisons.
Ashford said prison reform "is the most significant issue I've had to deal with" in his two stints as a state senator.
"We have significant issues that need to be addressed," Ashford said. "It's imperative."
The CSG team said treating inmates for drug problems while in prison will reduce recidivism by 17 percent. But it will be cut 24 percent using drug treatment upon release and 30 percent with strict supervision and needs-based community treatment programs.
A recent CSG report said justice reinvestment was becoming popular as states look at controlling bloated corrections budgets. Several states have reduced their prison populations by diverting more drug offenders into treatment programs and instituting sentencing reforms, among other things.
"Of these states, four have recently adopted policies that are projected to generate more than $1 billion in savings over five years" and earlier, the CSG report said. "Justice reinvestment efforts in Texas alone resulted in $1.5 billion in construction savings and $340 million in annual averted operations costs."
According to CSG, spending on corrections by all states shot from $12 billion in 1988 to more than $52 billion in 2011. In Nebraska, it went from about $38 million to $156 million during the same period.
"Declining state revenues and other fiscal factors are putting a serious strain on many states' criminal justice systems, often putting concerns about the bottom line in competition with public safety," the national report said. "Strategies tested in numerous states and local jurisdictions, however, show that there are effective ways to address the challenge of containing rising corrections costs while also increasing public safety."
Justice reinvestment is a data-driven approach that ensures policymaking is based on comprehensive analysis of criminal justice data and the latest research about what works to reduce crime and improve public safety.
In the first phase, experts analyze a variety of state-specific data to develop practical, consensus-based policies that reduce spending on corrections and generate savings that can be reinvested in strategies to improve public safety. In the second, jurisdictions translate the new policies into practice and monitor data to ensure related programs and investments perform as promised.