Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha on Tuesday urged the Legislature not to "kick the can down the road once again" while it avoids the growing need to address Nebraska's "prison overcrowding crisis," completing his filibuster of a state budget bill.
Lathrop's filibuster was designed to make his case before the budget proposal (LB1013) was moved on to second-stage consideration on a 39-4 vote.
That bill includes $25 million in funding for development of an agricultural innovation facility at Nebraska Innovation Campus.
Lathrop said the Legislature has dodged the challenge of addressing a rapidly growing inmate population that has led to overcrowding of the state's prisons well beyond designed capacity "for two administrations," a reference to the governorships of Dave Heineman and Pete Ricketts.
At one institution, Lathrop said, "people are literally sleeping on the floor."
Earlier this week, Ricketts described the proposed parole and sentencing reforms contained in the package emerging from a study by the Crime and Justice Institute and proposed by a majority of the members of a study committee as a "soft-on-crime package."
Lathrop, who is chairman of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee, has urged the Legislature to support investments in programming with "modest changes in sentencing (and) earlier parole eligibility."
Pending in the Legislature is a bill (LB920) to implement those reforms, but it faces opposition from two lawmakers who served on the study committee, Sens. Suzanne Geist of Lincoln and Julie Slama of Sterling.
Geist has filed five proposed amendments to the bill.
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Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha said proposed reforms would "decrease the number of people going in" the state's prisons.
Proposed reforms can be accomplished "without sacrificing public safety," Lathrop argued.
"We have no plan," Sen. John McCollister of Omaha said.
McCollister said he was hopeful when leaders of all three branches of state government participated in the Crime and Justice Institute study, but now the process is being blocked "by a governor casting aspersions on the process."
Building new prison beds does not solve the problem, Lathrop said.
"We need to be responsible," he said.
Ricketts has proposed building a new state prison to replace the aging State Penitentiary in Lincoln and the Appropriations Committee has set aside money to be able to fund it without yet appropriating the money.
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Cass Warren, 12, throws a disc golf next to his father Dan Warren on a windy afternoon at Pioneers Park, Friday, March 25, 2022. JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star
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GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star
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Charuth Van Beuzekom, who owns Shadow Brook Farm and Dutch Girl Creamery with husband Kevin Loth, enjoys the company of a day-old kid in the barn on Tuesday, March 1, 2022. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star
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Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com .
On Twitter @LJSdon
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