Is WEC cure for prison crunch?

McCOOK, Neb. — Nebraska District 44 Sen. Dan Hughes sees the state’s Work Ethic Camp in McCook as part of the state’s solution to overcrowding in its prisons.

“We need to reduce our prison population, but the population still increases. We’re going to have to have more beds,” Hughes told constituents in Grant, Imperial, Curtis and McCook joining in on a party-line telephone call this morning. Hughes said the state faces a July 2020 deadline by which the state’s prison population has to better match design capacity.

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In mid-2019, Nebraska’s prison facilities held 5,515 inmates, which was 2,140 more than they were designed to house.

The state Legislature requires the Department of Correctional Services to lower its inmate population by July 1, 2020, or an automatic “overcrowding emergency” will force prison officials to consider paroling all eligible inmates right away. While parole officials contend they are working to release as many parole-eligible inmates as possible, they don’t want to compromise public safety in order to meet the Legislature’s deadline.

In 2015, the Legislature passed a prison reform package to force corrections to reduce prison crowding by placing more emphasis on parole and rehabilitation.

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Sen. Hughes told those on the phone line from the McCook Chamber of Commerce that the Work Ethic Camp in McCook “would probably be the cheapest place to increase beds for prisoners.”

And, he said, he assumes that the community of McCook and the area “would like more beds” at the WEC because they would equate to more employment opportunities.

“We need more beds somewhere,” Hughes said. More beds are under construction in Lincoln, and a transitional facility in Omaha may expand, he said. He also said it’s possible that beds could be contracted from county jails for appropriate prisoners.

Hughes said he doesn’t think the state’s correctional officials want a federal judge to step in if prison overcrowding isn’t relieved.

“There are so many individuals in the system now,” he said. “There’s been nothing new as far as facilities for 10 to 15 years.” Hughes said that Nebraska hasn’t invested in facilities to match prison population growth.

Other challenges facing corrections, he said, are high staff turnover and the low number of mental health professionals willing to work in prison settings.

The Work Ethic Camp in McCook opened in 2000-01 and was conceived as an alternative to prison time and for those placed on intensive supervised probation. It started accepting and transitioning to an all-inmate population in July 2007. It can house 200 adult male prisoners.

Hughes said the facility in McCook is a prison now, and “unfortunately, it’s not practical or realistic” to go back to the original Work Ethic Camp concept of housing only probation referrals as it did originally.