By C1 Staff
Due to the miscalculations of prisoner sentences by the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, Nebraska could be shelling out about $4 million over the next 10 years, department officials reported Friday.
But the chairman of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee, Omaha Sen. Heath Mello said prison officials are miscalculating the costs as well, according to the Sioux City Journal.
It doesn’t represent the true impacts of the early releases and miscalculated sentences, Mello said. Officials are not calculating the actual costs to house inmates but rather only the per diem costs such as food, clothing, supplies and medical care, leaving out the cost of correctional staff.
“They are trying to whitewash their mistakes,” Mello said.
Corrections Director Michael Kenney said in the letter to the fiscal office that he asked his staff to take “an extensive look” at the impact of the miscalculations, especially the longer stays for inmates serving mandatory minimum sentences.
He sent the cost calculation for the next 10 years but said the full impact of the sentence miscalculations won’t be realized for 50 years, according to the report.
Calculated through 2064, the total cost, officials estimated, would climb to about $10 million.