Flatwater Free PressPaying the Price examines the causes and outcomes of Nebraska’s overcrowded prisons. For years, the states Department of Corrections has faced problems. In the past few years, the system surpassed Alabama to become the nation’s most overcrowded prison system. The series, in partnership with the Omaha World-Herald, comes as the state weighs construction of a new prison facility.
Board attendance spiked in spring 2022, after a Flatwater Free Press story showing spotty attendance. It spiked again this year, after the Nebraska Legislature got involved.
Watch the replay of “Nebraska’s Prisons at a Crossroads,” an in-depth panel discussion on the present and future of our prison system. Video begins at 10:23. Moderator Natalia…
Crescent Tucker pushes wheelchairs at the Nebraska State Penitentiary. He pushes prisoners older than him through the yard during their time outdoors. He helps them get to the…
Hailey Christiansen believed in second chances. The 29-year-old raised two pitbulls, Comrad and Thor, gentle giants her young son Hazen rode like horses. She had once considered becoming…
The prison reform movement that has helped send U.S. inmate numbers plummeting was born in deep-red Texas, offering a new criminal justice vision that appealed to both Republicans…
It was Josh Carse’s big day. He awoke before sunrise on March 19, 2021, and donned his khaki prison uniform, ready to learn if he could leave the…
If Nebraska wants to reduce chronic prison overcrowding, it’s “a no brainer” to let well-behaved prisoners have a shot at earlier parole as a 2011 law intended, says…
In 2011, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services wrote a bill that would allow well-behaved prisoners the chance to shorten their time behind bars. Eleven years later, that…
Lovell Brock would be the first to admit his own bad choices are largely the reason he’s been imprisoned three times in Nebraska, the first at age 16…
Seventeen employees of Nebraska’s prison system more than doubled the size of their paychecks during the past fiscal year. How? They made more in overtime payments than they…