LINCOLN- Several new laws took effect in Nebraska over the weekend, including one that protects Nebraska corrections workers. The state must now provide all of them with protective vests, a move that unfortunately comes too late for some staffers in Lincoln. On May 31, inmates stabbed five staff members with makeshift weapons inside the Reception and Treatment Center in Lincoln.

"Where they were all stabbed would have been prevented by these vests," said Michael Chipman. Now, thanks to LB50, it is a requirement. "These vets are really important because they help give you protection against edge weapons. So knives, we call them shanks. They make them out of barbed wire. They can make them out of a pencil. I mean, they make them out of a bunch of fun, different things," Chipman said.

He hopes this increased level of protection for corrections staff will help retain and even bring in some new employees.

"I think it will hopefully help the staff feel like, you know, it won't be as easy for them to get killed and or seriously injured," Chipman said. And they all hope that something like this never happens again.

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