DHHS head pledges to be ‘thoughtful and careful’ after lawmakers balk at plan to move in-custody teens

When he talks with the boys at Nebraska’s only youth prison, Mike Jackson feels like he’s giving advice to his younger self. And in a way, he is.

Jackson, 56, has been serving a life sentence since the late ’90s. Over a decade ago, he caught Corrections leaders’ attention as a natural mentor to his peers at the state prison in Tecumseh. 

In the time since, he has helped more than 200 teens and men get their diplomas and GEDs, he said, most recently for five years at the state’s youth prison in Omaha. Those are powerful moments of pride that remind him why he’s dedicated so much time and effort.

“I focus on being steady: keeping my word, following through and creating a space where they can feel safe enough to open up,” he wrote in a letter. But he won’t be doing it for the teens in Omaha much longer.

The state is preparing to move boys and men out of the Omaha youth prison in a few months. It’s part of a wider plan — created by state agency leaders — to shuffle confined youth among facilities.

Their plan, revealed earlier this year, blindsided staff and alarmed advocates. Lawmakers rejected both a related bill and budget request during the legislative session that just ended, opting instead to study the proposal.

“The whole process was not communicated well, and I don’t think it was justified well enough to all the communities and all the people involved, from staff all the way up to the Legislature,” said State Sen. Stan Clouse, a Republican from Kearney, home to a youth rehabilitation center that has been plagued by allegations of staff sexual abuse.

Corrections is charging ahead with plans to renovate a wing of an adult prison in Lincoln where it will move the Omaha youth, according to the agency. The rest of the plan, which would involve the Department of Health and Human Services, is in limbo.

Steve Corsi, CEO of DHHS, said legislators have been “very clear” that they want more time, and the department will work with them ahead of next year’s session. But he didn’t completely rule out moving youth in the meantime.

“I think ‘ruling out’ would be pretty strong,” he said. “We’re gonna be incredibly thoughtful and careful.”

The plan

At a recent open cabinet meeting, Corrections Director Rob Jeffreys said the Nebraska Correctional Youth Facility in downtown Omaha posed a “population management opportunity.” 

The prison has room for about 144, but typically has been housing 75, according to the department. Corrections spokesperson Dayne Urbanovsky said as of this week, the prison held 31 inmates — 17 youth and 14 adults.

After moving the boys to Lincoln and the men to other prisons, the Omaha building could host the roughly 80 boys typically housed at a youth rehabilitation center in Kearney, leaders determined. 

The dozen or so girls at the department’s Hastings center could then go to Kearney, which can house 142 and is slated to open an additional 48-bed cottage this month.

Boys from Whitehall, a psychiatric treatment center in Lincoln, would take the girls’ place in Hastings. The state would then vacate the aging Whitehall center, which could otherwise cost millions in needed updates.

The plan would save the state money and better serve kids, according to the department, and moves would happen gradually.

Corsi said at the April cabinet meeting that the plan was crafted over six months or more through a “deliberative and thoughtful” process. State officials have said it was not created in response to alleged sexual abuse at the Kearney center, which came to light in court hearings last fall.

“It will always be in the best interest of youth, whatever our decision is,” Corsi said.

The pushback

Leaders sought limited buy-in from lawmakers. The only related bill this session would have allowed girls to be housed in Kearney, which is prohibited under current law.

During the bill’s public hearing, advocates, lawmakers, state employees and union representatives raised a litany of concerns about how the plan could hurt youth in the state’s care.

They were concerned that the Hastings center may not be able to hire qualified staff to continue specialized programming available at Whitehall. They pointed out that girls from Hastings will be transferred to Kearney, where at least 10 teens had accused multiple staff members of sexual abuse.

They worried about youth in an adult prison, even when kept separate from adult inmates. They questioned why there were no studies, no paperwork showing a coherent plan.

A DHHS spokesperson said, “There is no final written plan,” because the agency was waiting for the law to change.

Kathy Bigsby Moore, founder of Voices for Children Nebraska and a driving force of decades of juvenile justice reform, called the plan “an unraveling of very thoughtful, careful work that has unfolded over the last 20 to 30 years.”

“I don’t think anybody could design anything worse,” she said in an interview. “It just doesn’t make any logical sense from a business corporate perspective or a human service perspective, and certainly not a therapeutic perspective.”

Sen. Clouse said he learned of the agencies’ plan not from DHHS, but from a colleague on the Health and Human Services Committee.

He’s concerned about the impact to his district’s economy and the youth. In his view, saving money on renovating Whitehall seems to be the main driver.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right thing to do, to save those types of dollars, because you’re impacting lives,” he said. “When you say kids are important to you, and then you do things like this — I don’t think that’s the right answer, to say you’re doing it for the kids.”

Where it stands now

When lawmakers ultimately killed the bill, Sen. John Fredrickson of Omaha, a Democrat on the Health and Human Services Committee, felt relieved the plan was on pause.

Then, he read an email outlining the plan to move youth from the Omaha prison to Lincoln.

“I mean, that’s under their jurisdiction,” he said. “But that also really pissed me off, too … to me, this is all part of the same conversation, because it was all part of this larger plan.”

Corrections is absorbing the estimated $2.3 million in construction costs in its existing budget via “various savings across the agency,” according to Urbanovsky. 

She did not specify where it found the money, but wrote in an email that it wouldn’t impact services. She said “the space will be designed to fully meet the programming needs of this population.” The Omaha World-Herald has reported that the department issued an emergency procurement notice earlier this year for those renovations. 

DHHS is “in a holding pattern,” spokesperson Jeff Powell wrote in an email, and committed to “working collaboratively” with lawmakers.

“Decisions will continue to be made in the best interests of the youth in our care,” he wrote.

Fredrickson and Clouse are pursuing a study ahead of next year’s session to evaluate the plan.

It’s possible that these moves are ultimately in the best interest of the kids involved, Fredrickson said, but they ought to be “incredibly cautious” in planning.

“Something of that scale should be well-thought through, and key stakeholders should be engaged in that whole process,” Fredrickson said. “It shouldn’t come as a surprise to key members that are affected.”

This study should’ve been done first, said Justin Hubly, executive director for the Nebraska Association of Public Employees, which represents non-security staff. Instead, the plan was announced as a sure thing to staff earlier this year, he said. 

Just four of the 115 NAPE-represented employees at the youth facilities quit in February and early March, according to Hubly.

Rolf Holbrook, who left his job at Whitehall, said he and the other therapists there had quickly come up with backup job plans. They felt like leadership was ignoring their concerns.

“Everyone was defeated — 100% defeated,” Holbrook said.

‘Insult to injury’

The state’s youth prison in Omaha exists because of advocates like Moore, who successfully lobbied the state to build a facility that would better serve kids in state custody. 

She doubts that the setup in Lincoln can offer the same opportunities. Last time she toured the Omaha prison, about a decade ago, there was a music program, an art program and other initiatives “that would equip inmates to return to society with purpose.”

“It’s a huge loss to the kids and a huge loss to us, as a society,” she said.

The North Omaha-based Empowerment Network and others have worked to reduce crime rates, Moore said. So, to see a low population used to justify this loss adds “insult to injury.” 

Urbanovsky said the music program and other offerings are part of the facility’s high school, which is moving with the population, and that this move will allow NDCS to maintain and enhance opportunities for youth.

“This is not the loss of a program — it is a program moving from one physical location to another,” she wrote in an email.

The Intentional Peer Support program, which the Mental Health Association brought to the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, is at multiple state prisons. Corrections will continue offering it to the teens who move to the Reception and Treatment Center in Lincoln, and two mentors will transfer there to continue in their roles, according to Urbanovsky. 

But Jackson won’t be among them. He’ll transfer to another prison. Jackson feels saddened, he said, but grateful and honored to have worked with the youth in Omaha. 

“Through our conversations, they’ve allowed me to share my lived experiences in a way that feels meaningful — not to warn or lecture them, but to help them avoid the same mistakes I made,” he wrote. “And in return, they have taught me something about the world outside: that we have to continue loving and supporting our youth, even when they make mistakes and struggle.”