LINCOLN- Quickly after the Nebraska Attorney General Office offered its opinion that the offices responsible for investigating the state's child welfare and prison systems are unconstitutional, inspectors general's access to those agencies' case management systems ended abruptly. It is the first time the office's have lost access to the system in over a decade of the systems use.

The Office of the Inspectors General, as well as the state's ombudsman office, were shut out of the online systems that track incidents, disciplinary actions, grievances and other reports for inmates, children in the care of the state, as well as employees who work with what officials describe as vulnerable populations.

The change in how the offices of the inspector general can access information from the agencies they are charged with performing oversight on comes on the heels of an opinion written by AG Mike Hilgers at the request of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Correctional Services. Hilgers, in the 38-page opinion, said the inspectors general's "untrammeled power to impede, control and access" information from other government branches violated the separation of powers clause in the Nebraska State Constitution.

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