LINCOLN- A prison watchdog is urging caution as the state prepares to open a new, 384-bed unit designed to hold the state’s most dangerous inmates.

The Nebraska Inspector General's Office outlined in a 29-page report complaints from inmates, staff, and management at similar facilities in Tecumseh, York, and Lincoln.

The report outlined a series of recommendations for the department in opening the $49 million, maximum-custody unit at the Reception and Treatment Center in Lincoln, which has been billed as being specially designed to handle dangerous inmates.

The Inspector General's report said the current facilities are operating more like restrictive housing, with the units struggling to provide the required out-of-cell time of 24 hours a week and rehabilitation programming.

Mike Chipman, the president of the union that represents corrections officers, said he also has concerns, mainly about recent reductions in the minimum staffing requirements for some state prison housing units, reductions that have left one officer overseeing units that used to require two.

The Inspector Generals Report highlighted areas such as staffing, writing out guidance requirements, body camera usage, increased behavior incentives, improved exercise yards, and Inmate transfer anger.

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