NE Courts Release Prison Data Suppressed By Governor's Office

Nebraska’s court system agreed to release a nonprofit group’s analysis of state criminal justice data after the governor’s office refused to release the information. The state’s judicial branch released almost 100 pages of reports the nonprofit Crime and Justice Institute has presented to a group of officials who are trying to decide how to address Nebraska’s prison overcrowding. The director of the ACLU of Nebraska, Danielle Conrad, praised the decision to release the records on Friday. The reports show that Nebraska’s prison population grew by 21% between 2011 and 2020 even though overall admissions to the system decreased because inmates are staying longer with more mandatory minimum sentences.