By C1 Staff
LINCOLN — A report is citing the Nebraska Department of Corrections for cutting corners and ignoring state laws and court rulings to alleviate overcrowding.
The Omaha reports that Nebraska’s state prison system has been at 159 percent of capacity, which caused the DOC to take underhanded steps to fix the problem.
Particular blame was put on Gov. Dave Heineman for not declaring an emergency that would have had the State Board of Parole to release inmates eligible for parole.
Instead, Sen. Steve Lanthrop, the head of the panel, said the DOC created programs “in the back room” to get inmates out of prison quicker.
The report recommended the firing of three corrections employees on top of the two attorneys who retired last summer to avoid termination. It also recommended that Gov.-elect Pete Ricketts make good on his promise to find new leadership outside of the state.
Ricketts said that an executive search firm is currently selecting candidates, and that he hopes to begin interviewing finalists in the first week of January.
The panel did acknowledge that the Legislature did bear some responsibility for the problems at the DOC, but it isn’t the only problem in Heineman’s administration that required a special probe.