NDCS assessing damage to state penitentiary after weekend storm displaced hundreds of inmates
By John Grinvalds
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LINCOLN, Nebraska (KETV) — Ferocious winds tore through Nebraska’s oldest prison complex on Saturday, leaving 387 incarcerated people displaced and the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services to pick the pieces.
“It kind of peeled a lot of the roof off,” Doug Koebernick, Nebraska’s inspector general for corrections, said. “And then caused water damage inside, too. So they’re not habitable right now.”
Two dormitory-style housing units at the Nebraska State Penitentiary took serious damage from Saturday morning’s storm.
NDCS Director Rob Jeffreys said the agency activated its incident command system at three facilities and at the central office. Contractors surveyed the damage at 7 a.m. on Monday, he said.
“What comes to mind when I think about the incredible work over the weekend is President Roosevelt’s famous ‘The Man in the Arena’ speech,” Jeffreys said in a statement on Monday. “We came through this natural disaster while keeping everyone safe, and the credit belongs to those who willingly take on this responsibility and rise to the challenge. Thank you. This is what we train for. Challenge accepted.”
NDCS moved 250 incarcerated people to a gymnasium and other facilities on NSP grounds. The other 137 were split up between the gyms at Omaha Correctional Center and the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution.
“During the Covid pandemic, the department became really creative at using space and adapting to changing situations,” Koebernick said.
Koebernick said the situation would’ve been much worse if not for the state’s prison population recently flatlining, a result of what he said was an uptick in parole granting.
“If you look at where we, where we were headed as far as population, if we had been at where it was predicted, there wouldn’t have that extra space around there,” he said. “So we’re very fortunate that it’s been stable.”
Koebernick said he hasn’t been to NSP since the storm but that he plans to visit soon. State Sens. Ashlei Spivey and Terrell McKinney toured NSP on Monday and outlined some of their concerns to the agency and to the public.
“Some folks are getting two bottles per meal, so for lunch and dinner,” Spivey said in a phone interview. “There was one facility that had, I think, a mop sink for 100 people, which isn’t creating the standard of living. It’s disgusting. And it also is not like functionally feasible for 100 people to use a mop sink to wash your hands after their restroom, or to brush their teeth and so on.”
Spivey also expressed concerns about mold and access to showers.
“The state is responsible for the folks inside,” Spivey said. “[NDCS is] trying to do the best that they can. And my job is to advocate for those folks inside to make sure that they have what they need and what the state should be providing.
NDCS has said it will take at least a month to repair the damaged facilities.
“That takes that gym out of commission for recreational activities for the rest of the population,” Koebernick said. “But then you also have this new population that you, you know, that you have to feed them somewhere. You have to rearrange schedules, so it impacts everybody.”
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