The Legislature’s Appropriations Committee has signed off on providing the funds to build a $366 million prison in the Lincoln-Omaha area just as the Department of Corrections brings on a new director who appears to favor programming and investing in the humanity of the incarcerated.
That brings some hope to a small but fierce band of senators who don’t think building is the best way out of the problem for the nation’s most overcrowded prison system. The money is a big part of the budget which lawmakers must pass before they adjourn this session for good.
If approved, the budget will transfer $95.8 million to complete the funding of a new, 1,500-bed prison in eastern Nebraska.That would bring the total cost of the facility to nearly $366 million, which would likely set a record for construction of a single state project.
