Nebraska’s top corrections official made a pitch Tuesday for lawmakers to finally sign off on building a new $335 million prison.
Diane Sabatka-Rine, interim director for the Department of Correctional Services, said the deterioration of the Nebraska State Penitentiary and the rising cost of construction mean the long-discussed project needs to move forward.
The 1,512-bed prison has been proposed as a replacement for the aging penitentiary, where a forced the relocation of 140 men in November. A similar leak last year left the Lincoln prison .
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Sabatka-Rine said such problems are likely to be repeated in a facility that includes the oldest buildings in the state prison system. The penitentiary is designed to hold 818 people, but currently houses about 1,200 men in maximum-, medium- and minimum-security units.
“This project can no longer be delayed,†she told members of the Appropriations Committee about the proposed new prison.
Last year, lawmakers set aside money for a new prison and allowed $15 million worth of design work to proceed. But they withheld approval for construction until they could get answers about the department’s long-term plans to address the growing inmate population.
The committee’s preliminary budget this year likewise listed the $335 million for prison construction among “pending items,†rather than approved spending.
On Tuesday, committee members asked what would be done with the penitentiary if the new prison is authorized. Sabatka-Rine said it would be needed to house prisoners for at least five years while the new facility is under construction.
After that, she said, plans call for the penitentiary to be decommissioned, but nothing concrete has been decided. She said the Corrections Department would work with the State Building Division to figure out whether the buildings can be saved and repurposed, sold or demolished.
In the meantime, Sabatka-Rine defended the department’s request for money to replace the fire alarm system at the penitentiary and other state prisons.
She said the current alarm system is at the end of its life and replacement parts are not available. She said it must be replaced because it affects a critical life safety issue. The department will use the same system at all prisons, so the one at the penitentiary can be used for replacement parts in the future.
Sabatka-Rine also urged committee members to include money for previously negotiated employee salary increases in the final budget plan. She said the agency used vacancy savings to cover those costs initially, but the higher pay has attracted enough new employees that those savings have been used up.
In response to questions, she acknowledged that overtime hours have not dropped despite the additional employees. She said one factor is that two prisons, the one in Tecumseh and the Reception and Treatment Center in Lincoln, continue to operate with 12-hour shifts, which includes some overtime hours.
Another is that the department continues to bus corrections workers from Omaha to Tecumseh, which means they cannot work full shifts. In addition, she said the department is trying to maintain “minimum staffing†levels, which allow for normal prison operations, rather than get by at “critical staffing†levels.
Nebraska Inspector General of Corrections Doug Koebernick said staffing shortages continue to affect operations in the prisons. Not all employees got the same level of raises, leaving some groups of workers feeling left behind, he said. The shortages particularly affect the treatment professionals needed to run programs so inmates can make progress toward gaining parole.