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Paying the Price: Nebraska gun law helped spark nation-leading prison growth
Omaha World Herald ^ | January 9, 2022 | Henry Cordes

Posted on 01/09/2022 7:13:50 AM PST by Mean Daddy

Nebraska's prison inmate population is growing faster than anywhere else in the nation, way out of sync with nearly every other state.

And the smoking gun behind much of that growth — and the millions of dollars that those extra inmates are costing Nebraska taxpayers — is a 2009 state law that created new gun crimes and toughened penalties. The law also helped steer hundreds of offenders from federal prisons into the state system, adding to the tab for Nebraska taxpayers.

As Gov. Pete Ricketts and the Legislature debate whether a new $230 million prison is needed to deal with the state's chronically overcrowded and understaffed corrections system, The World-Herald has uncovered a significant untold story behind the prison crisis.

No state grew its prison population more in the last decade than Nebraska. Its inmate count increased 16% between 2010 and 2020 even as such numbers nationally fell by nearly a fourth, according to a World-Herald analysis of U.S. Justice Department data. In fact, Nebraska and Idaho are the only states whose prisoner numbers didn't decline over the decade.

So at a time when many states across the country are closing prisons, Nebraska is staring at the possibility of building a pricey new one to deal with what has recently become the nation's most overcrowded prison system.

(Excerpt) Read more at omaha.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Iowa; US: Nebraska
KEYWORDS: banglist
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To: Mean Daddy

Great news! Somebody is sane around here!


21 posted on 01/09/2022 7:45:39 AM PST by AZJeep (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0AHQkryIIs)
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To: Drew68

“ Overall, however, trends for homicides and shootings in Omaha have been down in recent years.”

It’s the old “We put more people in prisons even though the crime rate is down” Dim argument.


22 posted on 01/09/2022 7:46:21 AM PST by VanShuyten ("...that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals)
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To: skeeter
Someone defined Hell as a place devoid of reason.

I would say chaos. Practically the same thing. Heaven,OTOH, would be a place of rule and order and tranquility.

23 posted on 01/09/2022 7:51:35 AM PST by BipolarBob (BipolarBob's your uncle.)
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To: Mean Daddy

To be sure, it’s not just offenders sentenced under the 2009 gun law who are filling up Nebraska’s prisons. Numerous other factors contribute to Nebraska’s nation-leading incarceration growth.


Not in the headlines. Why?


24 posted on 01/09/2022 7:58:19 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: Mean Daddy

Research has consistently shown the certainty of being arrested is a vastly more powerful deterrent than punishment.


Read that slowly and let your lips move............

It is the arresting, not the punishment. sure, it is.


25 posted on 01/09/2022 8:01:24 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: Mean Daddy

The kinds of gang-related shootings that sparked the gun crackdown in 2009 continue — including the death last month of a 14-year-old Omaha girl. Overall, however, trends for homicides and shootings in Omaha have been down in recent years.


So what is the real issue of the author? guns, prison, race? money, social justice?

Every article has an agenda, learn to read closely.


26 posted on 01/09/2022 8:03:42 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: Mean Daddy

WTH kind of reasoning is this.
In article it says research shows the threat of being arrested is a greater deterrent than threat of punishment?

Who writes this crap?


27 posted on 01/09/2022 8:09:30 AM PST by RWGinger (Does anyone else really )
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To: BenLurkin

They are probably unhappy because most of the offenders are minority groups from the cities they likely will scream aboutmthe new law,being “racist”


28 posted on 01/09/2022 8:10:58 AM PST by Bob434
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To: Mean Daddy

Expect this headline, if it’s not already out there:

“Crime down in Nebraska despite substantial increase in prison population”


29 posted on 01/09/2022 8:11:14 AM PST by BobL (I shop at Walmart and eat at McDonald's, I just don't tell anyone, like most here.)
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To: Lurker

30 posted on 01/09/2022 8:13:16 AM PST by Delta 21 (It started as a virus, and mutated into an IQ test.)
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To: Mean Daddy
What can I say. Here in Nebraska, we lock people up for breaking the law. Come here and F up and find out.

Traffic drugs on I80, jail ! We have teams that concentrate on that and that alone.

31 posted on 01/09/2022 8:13:38 AM PST by Newbomb Turk
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To: DIRTYSECRET

Average of $145 dollars per day to house each inmate (most of whom are illegals in many states- some prisons are made up,of almost 70% illegals)

That works,out to about $50,000 per inmate per year, but thstnis IF they don’t launch multiple lawsuits trying to,overturn their convictions- some inmates cost a heck,of,a,lot more,than $145 p/d


32 posted on 01/09/2022 8:14:40 AM PST by Bob434
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To: Mean Daddy

“It’s not acceptable anymore, for political reasons, or any reason, to simply address a problem by putting people in prison for long periods of time,” Ashford said.


“or for any other reason”

This is the concluding statement of the article.


33 posted on 01/09/2022 8:15:37 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: Mean Daddy

A good time to move to Nebraska.


34 posted on 01/09/2022 8:18:06 AM PST by Ge0ffrey
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To: Mean Daddy

Note a few things here:

1. They don’t give a reason why the laws were toughened. In light of that, I’ll give the reason - the feds were NOT putting people away, and neither were judges in LaHood.

2. They hit the government from the Right, by implying this is a waste of money...basically saying that keeping violent felons separated from society is a money wasted. Hitting from the right in terms of money spent is a common tactic for the Left when they know any other approach will backfire.

3. They don’t give any context on the amount of money being spent. Nebraska is a big state, the cost of the new jail is a pittance.

4. They don’t mind showing us how the jails are being emptied throughout the country, but they don’t seem very interested in showing what is concurrently happening with crime rates.

But, as I always say, THEY OWN THE MEDIA, so THEY can do as they please.


35 posted on 01/09/2022 8:21:20 AM PST by BobL (I shop at Walmart and eat at McDonald's, I just don't tell anyone, like most here.)
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To: Bernard

“ They could always go one step further and deport any inmate who cannot provide proof of citizenship. ”

Then you have some idiots committing crimes just to get a free ride home. The way this usually works is they are deported after serving their sentences. Personally, I know what I would do with interlopers who commit crimes in America, but maybe that’s just me.


36 posted on 01/09/2022 8:22:39 AM PST by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: dljordan

“Be interesting to see the demographic change for those ten years.”

Meant to include that - their population grew about 10% over those 10 years, so their incarceration rate only increased a bit over their population. And no doubt most of that growth was in the minority population, so it’s probably a push (at most) overall.


37 posted on 01/09/2022 8:24:00 AM PST by BobL (I shop at Walmart and eat at McDonald's, I just don't tell anyone, like most here.)
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To: PeterPrinciple

“Research has consistently shown the certainty of being arrested is a vastly more powerful deterrent than punishment.”

When I see something like that, I start to wonder who is writing this ‘article’. Is it really a reporter who just stumbled on to this ‘research’ for the article, or is it a BLM Lawyer, or Soros Lawyer, for example?


38 posted on 01/09/2022 8:29:28 AM PST by BobL (I shop at Walmart and eat at McDonald's, I just don't tell anyone, like most here.)
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To: BobL

They don’t give a reason why the laws were toughened.


Deep in the article it was a rise in gang activity in Omaha in 2007, and the law passed in 2009.


39 posted on 01/09/2022 8:29:48 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: aquila48
I always find it amusing when people complain of overcrowded prison and their solution is to let the criminals free.

I have always believed in early release to un-crowd the prisons:

The sooner the trap door is released, the sooner the prison isn't crowded: for every new admission, the most serious offender is released to God, to make room.

40 posted on 01/09/2022 8:37:01 AM PST by ApplegateRanch (Love me, love my guns!)
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