LINCOLN- The state is progressing in the right direction by expanding rehabilitation programs that prepare inmates to return to society says Scott Frakes, the Nebraska Corrections Director during a hearing of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee. These improvements are still happening amidst the virus infecting close to 400 people in the Nebraska corrections systems.

Nebraska has struggled with prison overcrowding for over a decade, with the department holding 5,333 inmates when the capacity is only 3,535. This caused a federal civil rights lawsuit in which the state was ordered to declare a prison overcrowding emergency. The main issue with the overcrowding is that inmates have not been able to participate in programs that make them eligible for parole, which would drastically reduce the amount of people in the facilities. Frakes says rehabilitation programs had 275 graduates in the previous fiscal year in comparison to 38 in 2015. However, the number of people leaving prison with a GED has decreased.

Sen. Pansing Brooks criticized corrections for not doing enough, and continued to say that she would like to see more improvement with the amount of people completing programs in the hearing last Thursday.

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