As tensions within Nebraska's prison system threaten to boil over, a group of former inmates gathered at the state Capitol on Saturday to protest prison conditions.
Members Among Society Serving Individuals Validating Each other, a support group of former inmates helping each other reintegrate into society and give back to the community, protested outside of the Capitol. The group aims to promote better treatment and increased safety measures for inmates and staff inside Nebraska's correctional facilities.
Michael Dicken, the director of the nonprofit organization, said the group is not against corrections, but believes conditions need to be improved.
“Most of the guys incarcerated will be coming back to our communities," he said. "How do we ensure that when they come in, they will come out safe? How do we ensure that the employees, when they go to work, they come out safe?”
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Dicken said he believes more education and training could help conditions.
“We deserve, as a community, to feel good about our loved ones being there and being able to come back without being killed or injured,” Dickens said.
On April 10, ACLU of Nebraska demanded that the state make immediate changes in the prisons or face a lawsuit.
Nebraska’s Department of Correctional Services has seen numerous altercations among inmates and staff in recent months.
On April 7, three staff members at the state Diagnostic and Evaluation Center in Lincoln were assaulted and a fire was started in a housing unit. On April 19, an inmate in the Tecumseh state prison attacked two guards and bit a caseworker. Two days later, a Tecumseh inmate was charged with first-degree murder for allegedly strangling his cellmate the week before.
Dicken said appropriate housing for inmates could improve conditions.
“They need to house people accordingly,” he said. “If you have a murderer and somebody who sells drugs, I wouldn’t put them in the same cell.”
Dicken said taking the yard off lockdown could also ease some of the unrest at the prison, along with certain policy changes related to punishment.
Ron Dean, M.A.S.S.I.V.E.’s outreach communications coordinator, said the current policy is to punish all inmates when something goes wrong.
“It’s always been the policy that the hammer is the only tool to solve problems,” he said.
Dean said policy changes could potentially make the prisons safer for both inmates and staff.
“We have to do something different," he said. "This is not working.”