Gov. Heineman Announces Nebraska Selected for Community Corrections Pilot Program

Gov. Heineman Announces Nebraska Selected for Community Corrections Pilot Program

Gov. Dave Heineman announced that The Pew Charitable Trusts organization has selected Nebraska to be part of a pilot project aimed at developing policies and community corrections programs that better serve residents by protecting public safety, holding offenders accountable and helping control the costs of correctional services.

"Nebraska's prison population is projected to grow in the coming years, and the concept we've embraced through community corrections is that there are better solutions to this challenge than to simply build another maximum-security prison," Gov. Heineman said. "We have invested significant resources in our community corrections program in recent years, and this project will provide an opportunity to look more closely at our corrections system and utilize the expertise of our partners in this new venture to review our policies and make appropriate changes that can help offset the need for more prisons in our state."

The Pew Charitable Trusts and its partners, including the Vera Institute of Justice, will provide research and financial assistance to Nebraska's Community Corrections Council as it collects and assesses data, explores options and examines how other states approach similar challenges to better understand how state policies and regulations influence prison population growth.

Pew's Public Safety Performance Project was conceived to help states seek better results from sentencing and corrections systems by identifying factors driving prison growth and providing policy audits to identify options for reform using approaches and best practices employed by other states. Nebraska is among eight states selected to be part of the pilot program.

Officials with the nonprofit organizations selected Nebraska due to the advances made during the past five years in criminal justice system and sentencing practices, the willingness of state agencies to work together, and the commitment by leaders from each of the three branches of government to achieve practical, research-driven solutions.

Lori Grange, senior officer for state policy initiatives for The Pew Charitable Trusts, said, "Nebraska's leaders have made extraordinary changes in sentencing and corrections to deliver the outcomes taxpayers want: less crime and fewer victims, the return of ex-offenders as productive, law-abiding members of society, and wiser user of public dollars. With Governor Heineman's leadership and his commitment to effective and efficient government, Nebraska is poised to make greater progress in protecting the public while controlling corrections spending. We are honored to assist the state in its efforts."

Last June the Governor was notified that Nebraska's state prisons had crossed the statutorily designated marker of 140 percent of design capacity for inmates. State law gives the Governor the authority to declare an overcrowding emergency for state prisons, which he declined in close consultation with the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services.

Since then, the Community Corrections Council has been working to address issues ranging from reforming the state's sentencing guidelines to using methods such as probation, parole and intensive supervision upon release to help offset the need for additional prisons.

Nebraska has implemented a voucher program for treatment, created a new specialized substance abuse supervision program for probationers and parolees, and has established day and evening reporting centers at pilot sites for probationers, parolees and drug court participants. Officials estimate that those reforms, combined with other systemic changes, could help offset prison population growth, resulting in significant taxpayer savings.

The Pew project will provide research, analysis and expertise to state leaders, supporting plans to successfully implement evidence-based sentencing options to hold targeted offenders accountable while allowing for safe and effective community corrections programs.

Kermit Brashear, chairman of the Community Corrections Council, said, "For the first time ever, Nebraska's criminal justice system has piloted and established enhanced community corrections programming and now offers targeted drug treatment for offenders. From the beginning of this project, the Vera Institute of Justice has been an essential resource of expertise for this community corrections effort, offering guidance on policy and process. Now, given the philanthropy of the Pew Charitable Trusts, we are assured even more of this invaluable resource assist in the further development and expansion of this systematic change. We are, indeed, very grateful."

http://www.gov.state.ne.us/news/2007_02/12_community_corrections.html