WEC considers pet pilot project

A proposed program at the McCook Work Ethic Camp could be used to teach offenders about responsibility, relationships, compassion and hard work.

During the community involvement committee meeting at WEC on Thursday, Superintendent Raleigh Haas said the facility is looking at a program that would allow offenders to train dogs in preparation for adoption from the McCook Humane Society.

Cindy Schneider, nursing supervisor at WEC, said the program is still in the planning stage and a pilot program most likely would be implemented to see how it worked.

On April 30, WEC celebrated three years since opening its doors. Since that time, 669 offenders have been admitted to the program, there are 89 currently in residence and 470 have successfully completed the program.

Haas said earlier concerns over finding enough work for the offenders participating in the road crew were unfounded. In the past three years, offenders have provided 108,286 hours to area non-profit agencies. As of Jan. 1, offenders provided 17,344 hours of service.

"In the past two weeks, we've had to send letters out saying we have to cut back on donated hours," Haas said.

Haas said he was pleased that the move by Sen. John Synowiecki of Omaha to close the facility failed in the last session. But, he said Synowiecki is planning to propose legislation that would turn the facility into an Intense Supervised Probation facility, which is what the current facility provides, he said.

He said he hopes people will instead throw their support behind a move by Nebraska Sen. Tom Baker to expand the facility. While the pressure isn't high to add on, he said, "I believe the need is there."

During the discussion on the demographics of WEC, Haas expressed concerns that two of Nebraska's larger counties had failed to sentence any offenders to the WEC.

He said there have been referrals from 67 of the state's 93 counties. Most of those counties are small counties that most likely have not had criminals that meet the criteria.

But two counties, York and Seward, have failed to send any offender to the camp. "You can't tell me in three years there hasn't been anyone who has met the criteria in those areas," Haas said.