Omaha Sen. Terrell McKinney says after touring storm-torn prison: 'I've never seen it this bad'

Omaha Sen. Terrell McKinney, who toured the Lincoln prison Monday along with State Sen. Ashlei Spivey of Omaha, said the temporary housing conditions at the facility were “just a mess” after Saturday morning’s storm tore the roof off two housing units, displacing 387 men who had been incarcerated in the units.

Nebraska’s Department of Correctional Services moved 137 of the inmates to gyms at the Omaha Correctional Center and the Tecumseh State Prison, officials said Sunday.

Prison staff placed the 250 other displaced people in the State Penitentiary’s gym and other available housing units at the prison along South 14th Street and Nebraska Parkway.

After a tour of the prison Monday, McKinney raised concerns about the conditions inside the temporary housing locations, where he said there didn’t seem to be adequate access to restrooms or bathroom sinks.

“I’ve never seen it this bad,” McKinney said. “I’ve been there when there’s been floods, and it’s bad because of flooding, but I’ve never seen it this bad to where they have to literally move people like that.”

He said some inmates he spoke with told him they lost a majority of their possessions when Saturday’s storm ripped through Housing Units No. 7 and 8.

Some men hadn’t been able to change their clothes since, McKinney said. And many complained of overcrowding in the makeshift units, he said.

Before Saturday’s storm, there were around 1,286 men incarcerated at the State Penitentiary, which was designed to house 818.

McKinney called on the department to transfer inmates with low custody classifications to the department’s community corrections facilities, where inmates are allowed to participate in off-campus work-release programs and attend church and school in the community.

“I think they should try to find a way to move those people back to community and streamline the parole process and those type of things, especially for people who are slated to be released within the next 30 to 60 days,” he said.

“If they can at least start to begin to transition some of the people who are about to get out out faster, I think that could help as well with the situation,” he added.

The state’s two community corrections facilities in Lincoln and Omaha are overcrowded, too. Designed to house a combined 550 inmates, the two facilities house closer to 690, according to Department of Correctional Services population data.

In a statement, Corrections Director Rob Jeffreys lauded his department’s storm response, which he said had “the top objective of life safety measures.”

“The cleanup response has been impressive, with contractors on the ground at 7 a.m. this morning,” he said. “What comes to mind when I think about the incredible work over the weekend is President Roosevelt’s famous ‘The Man in the Arena’ speech.’

“We came through this natural disaster while keeping everyone safe, and the credit belongs to those who willingly take on this responsibility and rise to the challenge. Thank you. This is what we train for. Challenge accepted.”

In a press release Sunday, department officials had said contractors would begin assessing the extent of damage Monday. The department’s initial internal estimate indicated repairs would take at least one month, according to the release.

Built in 1998, the two dormitory-style housing units damaged in Saturday’s storm are among the newest housing units on the state’s oldest prison campus.

Though the State Penitentiary opened in 1869, most housing units were built in the 1980s or early 1990s. Housing Unit No. 9, the newest one, was built in 2020.

There is no indication in public documents that prison officials had concerns about the roofs on Housing Units No. 7 and 8.

An engineering study the state commissioned in 2022 identified more than a dozen deficiencies on each of the buildings. The report from Alvine Engineering called for window and wall replacements and new HVAC, lighting, power and security systems — but no upgrades to the roofs.

The same report called for the roofs of nine other buildings on the State Penitentiary campus to be replaced, including the roofs on six guard towers.

In the agency’s annual budget request last year, the Department of Correctional Services sought funds to replace or repair the roofs of more than a dozen buildings at prisons across the state. That list included four housing units at the State Penitentiary, but not the two that Saturday’s storm tore through.

The storm, which packed winds between 80 mph and 90 mph, damaged the units as contractors begin construction on the state’s new 1,512-bed prison in northeast Lincoln. The facility, cast as a replacement for the State Penitentiary, is scheduled to open in August 2028.