Our state leaders have spent months and years publicly debating how to fix our chronically overcrowded prisons, and fighting over whether to build a brand-new prison.
No one, and I mean no one, is talking about a little-known law that was meant to get well-behaved prisoners out of prison sooner. According to our new story from crack FFP reporter Natalia Alamdari, this law has the potential to allow thousands of prisoners to get paroled days, weeks or months sooner if they are well behaved and earn “good time.”
But it’s…not. And the bizarre nature of why it’s not is kind of hard to overstate.
The bill in question was written by the Nebraska Department of Corrections in 2011 and then passed into law. But the Nebraska Department of Corrections in 2022 is interpreting the resulting law differently than the Nebraska Department of Corrections in 2011 intended. And Corrections Circa 2022 is actually currently fighting to keep their current interpretation of the law as is, a fight that has gone all the way to the Nebraska Supreme Court.
Do you feel befuddled? Flummoxed? Downright baffled? Join the club.
And then read the story by Alamdari, who has been skillfully covering prison issues for us since starting at FFP in November.
We are working on stories about Nebraska’s chronically overcrowded prison system in partnership with the Omaha World-Herald. So this story appeared both on our website and on the front page of the OWH today. High five!
Albion, far and wide: Last week’s story about how one Nebraska small town, Albion, is succeeding in the 21st century ran in the following places:
The World-Herald. Nebraska Public Media. News Channel Nebraska. KMTV News Now in Omaha. The Grand Island Independent. The North Platte Telegraph. The York News Times (not to be confused, of course, with the New York Times, which has thus far failed to run this story). The Beatrice Daily Sun. The newspaper serving Wahoo, Ashland and Waverly. The Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil. The Lexington Clipper-Herald. The Columbus Telegram. And last but for sure not least: The Albion News.
Getting a small town success story — a virtual blueprint for other small towns to succeed — to readers in cities and small towns across this state is exactly what we envisioned when we founded the Flatwater Free Press. Exactly.
With your support we’re gonna do it again, and again and again.
Here’s a TV interview I did with News Channel Nebraska on Albion. It comes courtesy of NCN.
Questions wanted: Some of our best story ideas come from readers, and they typically start with a burning question that just cries out for an answer. Have a question that our reporters need to look into? Complete this form or reach our newsroom at [email protected].
Sincerely,
—Matthew Hansen, Executive Editor
Here’s what we’re into this week: News from around Nebraska
Every week we like to share great Nebraska journalism, no matter who made it. Here’s what caught our eye this week:
- It’s not everyday that a sitting Nebraska congressman goes on trial, so it seems only correct to focus on journalism around the first days of the trial of Rep. Jeff Fortenberry. The Omaha World Herald’s institution of a court reporter, Todd Cooper, with a story of the beginning of the defense’s case, which appeared in the Lincoln Journal Star and in Lee Enterprises newspapers across the state.
- Aaron Sanderford, friend of FFP and a tireless reporter for Nebraska Examiner, explains the eye-raising way that Fortenberry is asking to continue to vote by proxy in Washington DC even though he’s on trial in Los Angeles.
- In non Jeff Fortenberry news…up-and-comer Elizabeth Rembert of Nebraska Public Media with an important story on the debate about the different ways to clean up Mead after the environmental disaster there.
