Governor Pete Ricketts says he remains committed to construction of a new prison as part of the plan to reduce inmate overcrowding, even as the Legislature reduced the amount that would be set aside for such a facility.
Lawmakers this week amended the original $115 million set-aside to be held for the Capital Construction Fund toward the overall $230 million cost, dropping it to $100 million.
During an interview with KNEB News Ricketts said there’s a parallel path with the Crime and Justice Institute reviewing the state justice system, and both efforts need to move forward. “The reason that’s so important is that it takes years to build a prison, there’s a lot of work we have to do, so we need to keep both processes moving forward,” says Ricketts. “That’s really my priority for the budget is to go forward on that (prison planning), and then with regard to other things, we can certainly continue to have those conversations going forward, and happy to do that as well, but the big priority for me is replacing the Nebraska State Penitentiary.”
The other $15 million was moved to fund a new Prison Overcrowding Contingency Fund that could be used at the Legislature’s discretion.
A conversation with the Governor on this and other topics can be found here.
