Nebraska

Inspector General’s Office investigates in-custody suicides with Nebraska Department of Correctional Services

Published

5 months ago

August 23, 2024

Inspector General’s Office investigates in-custody suicides with Nebraska Department of Correctional Services

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – An inspector general is recommending changes in the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services after reviewing three in-custody suicides.

A report released Tuesday details successes and failures made by staff and infrastructure within NDCS in the wake of three suicides between 2021 and 2023. The inmates died by hanging in each incident, but all under different circumstances.

Inspector General Doug Koebernick said in his report that NDCS has spent time looking into suicides in its facilities. A suicide work group had been established in 2018, led by the department’s medical director.

The group made multiple recommendations for the department which include:

Distributing suicide awareness pamphlets to inmates, friends and family
Adjusting the staff training manual
Streaming a suicide prevention video in all NDCS facilities
Using an additional screening tool during transfers and intakes
Advertising a phone number that friends and family can call should an inmate make alarming comments

During his investigation, Koebernick found that NDCS only implemented the phone number to report suicidal comments made by inmates. However, the number did not work, and NDCS eventually phased the program out.

A review of three suicides then revealed a handful of policy and infrastructure failures within NDCS that resulted in incomplete investigations. He found that internal critical incident reviews, mandated reports outlining specific details in suicides, were not be sufficiently completed.

Similarly, a mental health team member is required to complete a psychological autopsy following a suicide. Koebernick requested the psychological autopsies in each case, but NDCS did not provide him with any.

Individual A:

The first inmate, identified as Individual A, a 45-year-old man, died by suicide at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution in 2022. He was serving a life sentence after murdering his cellmate and had been incarcerated for a variety of charges beginning in 2006.

In August, correctional staff found the inmate lying with his left arm hanging off his bed. He had cut himself, and a pool of blood was gathering on the floor. Staff brought him to the medical unit and gave him stitches.

He told staff that he was not suicidal, but a suicide note that had been tossed in the trash was later found in his room. The inmate was put under “Plan A,” otherwise known as suicide watch, and was given a security blanket, paper clothes and extra supervision.

A few days later, behavioral health staff downgraded his plan before returning him to his regular unit. The inmate had denied any suicidal intent when spoken to by staff.

Staff then found the inmate unresponsive in his cell just 16 days after he cut his wrists with a razor blade, Koebernick wrote. He wrapped a bedsheet around his neck and tied it to the top bunk of his bed. Staff attempted life-saving measures, but the inmate was pronounced dead.

Koebernick reviewed phone call the inmate made in the days before his death, and he discovered that the man had spoken to his mother on several occasions. Five days before his death, the inmate told his mother about his self-harm and indicated that he wanted to die.

The inspector general then interviewed inmates familiar with the man and learned that he may have been abusing K2 and possibly owed another inmate money for the drug. He noted that the review of phone calls and the interviews were not completed in the ICIR.

Individual B:

In June of 2023, another 45-year-old inmate took his life in a similar manner to Individual A. He had been incarcerated since May of 2023, and his release was expected by the next year.

An emergency response team was activated after the inmate was found unresponsive in his cell one night. He was found face-down with a sheet tied around his neck that had been attached to a locker. Staff performed life-saving measures, but a paramedic with Lincoln Fire and Rescue ultimately pronounced him dead.

Further investigation revealed that not all cameras in the area were operational at the time, eliminating any view of staff outside the cell. Intelligence staff noted the issue a day after the death, Koebernick wrote.

Koebernick discovered that the cameras were not working due to a software update. The cameras should have been working at the time, however, but nobody bothered to check if they were actually functioning.

Prior to the death, Koebernick check the inmate’s call records and discovered he’d made 99 outgoing calls on the day of his death. He learned that the inmate would regularly call a woman and get into an argument. Only two of the calls connected that day, and both devolved into “a very vocal argument,” Koebernick wrote.

The inmate’s cellmate was interviewed, and he shared a harrowing story from the night of the suicide. Staff woke him up once they found his cellmate unresponsive and yelled at him to untie the bed sheet. But staff burst in and ordered him back to his bed. He was handcuffed as staff performed CPR and later moved to the holding area.

His cellmate’s corpse was then left in the same holding room in full view of the inmate. He asked to be taken out of the room three or four times but was told no each time. After some time, staff returned him to his cell and then transferred him to a new cell the next day.

The inmate reported suffering a breakdown the day after the suicide, and he reported that mental health staff did not contact him despite his suffering.

During the interview, the inmate told Koebernick that his deceased cellmate had been abusing his prescription drugs in the days leading up to his suicide and often stayed up all night.

Individual C:

Finally, the inspector general’s office investigated the suicide death of a 25-year-old inmate in December of 2021. The man had been incarcerated since 2019, and he was expected to be released in early 2032.

The inmate was not a sex offender at the time of his death, but he was slated to be sentenced for a sex-related offense in federal court the week following his death.

Correctional staff discovered the inmate unresponsive on his bottom bunk early one morning. Like Individual A, Individual C wrapped a bed sheet around his neck and tied it to his top bunk. Chest compressions were attempted, but the inmate was pronounced dead a short time after he was found.

A suicide note showed that the inmate did not want to be a sex offender. The ICIR showed that staff handled the incident well, but the inmate had been checked at “substandard” 30-minute increments.

Another suicide at Tecumseh’s prison in 2016 involved the use of a bed sheet tied to a top bunk, and the ICIR in this incident recommended staff remove the second bunk and cabinets from the prison’s cells.

In his findings, Koebernick concurred with the ICIR’s recommendation and encouraged NDCS to removed second bunks and cabinets from cells in Tecumseh.

He also wrote that body camera footage from the incidents proved helpful in his investigation, but noted that those cameras aren’t in use at the Reception and Treatment Center which primarily handles cases involving mental health.

He then recommended the following actions for NDCS:

NDCS should review the recommendations from the 2018 suicide work group and determine if a special team should be created to focus on suicides and suicide attempts
The department should review its policy regarding psychological autopsies and whether or not they have been completed or remain necessary
The prison in Tecumseh should remove second bunks and cabinets from its cells
Body cameras should be implemented with staff on each shift’s emergency response team
The ICIR process should be amended to include more investigatory means, including interviewing inmates and reviewing additional information in each incident

Inspector General Koebernick shared his findings with NDCS Director Rob Jeffries on June 10. He concluded his report with Jeffries’ response on June 25.

The director wrote back with the following after signing a policy directive for NDCS:

“The mental health director/designee will designate a psychologist who is not assigned to the affected facility to complete a psychological autopsy for all suicides and, as he/she deems appropriate for attempted suicides.”

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Nebraska

Amid losing streak, Huskers need to keep grinding: “That's the bottom line”

Published

3 hours ago

January 21, 2025

Press Room

Amid losing streak, Huskers need to keep grinding: “That’s the bottom line”

No one likes the sound or feel of a losing streak. And when one of those reaches four games, like it has for Fred Hoiberg’s Nebraska Cornhuskers, those outside the program start thinking the worst.

Will the program make the 15-team Big Ten Tournament? Will the Huskers get back to the Big Dance for a second consecutive season? Is it time to hit the panic button with 13 regular-season games remaining?

Yes, the noise is awfully loud outside of Hoiberg’s program, which sits at 12-6 overall and 2-5 in Big Ten play after dropping four straight, three of which have come on the road.

Inside the Huskers’ walls, though, Hoiberg still believes his team will weather this storm it finds itself in. And while it doesn’t look or feel like it for some, those postseason goals set in the summer when this roster was finalized are still alive.

“It’s all out there right now,” Hoiberg said Tuesday during a press conference at Pinnacle Bank Arena ahead of Wednesday night’s 8 p.m. home game against USC (11-7, 3-4). “We went from being in a really good situation, in a really good position, to still having our goals right in front of us.”

While it was a loss and moral victories aren’t really his thing, it was hard for Hoiberg to ignore the positives he and his staff saw for stretches at Maryland. The defensive intensity wasn’t there for a full 40 minutes, but there was enough of it to nearly escape with a win against a team Nebraska hasn’t beat on the road since January 2017.

“One thing I really liked about the last game, I thought our defensive edge was back, and that’s got to be our constant,” Hoiberg said.

Keeping the players focused on the upcoming job and not on what a four-game losing streak could turn into is a top priority right now. So is ramping things up defensively. That’s where it starts.

In seven games against Big Ten competition, Nebraska is allowing 81.4 points per game, third-worst in the conference behind Iowa (88.6) and Minnesota (82.9). The Huskers’ perimeter defense has struggled mightily with too many slow or out-of-position rotations and soft close-outs. Nebraska’s last four opponents have have shot a combined 47% from 3 (58-of-122), with Maryland making 10 3s, Rutgers 12, Purdue 19 and Iowa 17.

Responding from adversity, not hitting the panic button and sticking together on the court when things go south is the name of the game right now. It’s a long season, and the road doesn’t get much easier with the Huskers’ next three opponents after USC being ranked in No. 18 Wisconsin, No. 17 Illinois and No. 15 Oregon.

“Body language in this business, man, it’s not good. Teams will pounce, they’ll smell blood in the water and they’ll jump all over you when that happens,” Hoiberg said. “We show examples of it when guys hang their heads or throw their arms up. When we stay together, we’re pretty good and we have a chance. And I thought for the most part, against Maryland, it was good. Against Rutgers, I didn’t see a lot of head hanging. We played hard that game, we just didn’t play with the toughness that we needed to. We got it back in this last one.

“So, just keep grinding, man. That’s the bottom line. We just got to keep fighting, keep swinging. And I’m confident this team will go on a run at some point.”

The team doesn’t want to always have to rely on a packed PBA to get a win, but having thousands in red backing you up on the court sure is nice. And for the first time since the Indiana win on Dec. 13, the student section will be full as classes at UNL have started again.

“Our students will be back tomorrow. Very important for us to get the crowd behind us early in this game, coming off the streak that we’re on right now,” Hoiberg said. “Got to do everything in our power to get out of it.”

Potential injuries could lead to a shake-up to the starting lineup or rotation

On Tuesday Hoiberg mentioned the team is dealing with a bit of an injury situation one day out from the game. Understandably, the head coach declined to mention which players.

“We’ve got a couple guys who are nursing some injuries right now that have not practiced, who will hopefully be ready for the game tomorrow,” said Hoiberg.

More on USC, which has a former Millard North Mustang who’s playing well

USC comes to Lincoln averaging 77 points per game, which ranks 12th in the Big Ten, right in front of Nebraska’s 76.6.

The Trojans’ ability to take and make the 3 will obviously play a large factor in the game. As a team, USC is averaging the fewest 3-point attempts per game in the conference (18.2) but is shooting 35.2% from 3 (6th in Big Ten). Defensively, the Trojans are allowing 77.3 points per game against Big Ten opponents (T-7th).

USC has had an up and down season. In November, the Trojans lost by 35 points, 71-36, to a common non-conference opponent of Nebraska’s in St.Mary’s. That day USC shot a horrid 26% (13-of-50) from the field and missed all 12 3-point attempts.

But head coach Eric Musselman’s team also beat Washington on the road 85-61, trailed by just 4 points with 11 minutes left in the game at Michigan before losing 85-74 and beat No. 13 Illinois 82-72 in Champaign on Jan. 11.

USC’s leading scorer is Desmond Claude, a 6-foot-6, 201-pound guard and transfer from Xavier who’s averaging 16 points, 3.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists. Claude isn’t a dangerous 3-point shooter as he’s shooting 30% from deep this season (8-of-26), but he’s tough to defend when attacking the paint. He scored 31 points at Illinois and went 7-of-7 from the free-throw line.

Nebraska’s defensive rotations will obviously need to be crisper than they’ve been during this losing streak, especially when those skip passes opponents like to throw against Nebraska’s double-the-post defense finds Chibuzo Agbo, Wesley Yates III and Saint Thomas.

Agbo is a 6-7, 227-pound guard who’s shooting 38% from 3 (41-of-107) and has five games of four or more made 3s this season. Yates is a 6-4, 219-pound guard who’s shooting 37% from (20-of-54).

Hoiberg noted USC’s rotation players can all handle the ball well and are around the same size, in that 6-6 to 6-8 range.

“They’re extremely talented when you look top to bottom with their rotation guys, it’s got an unbelievable level of talent,” Hoiberg said. “And obviously Eric Musselman is one of the best in the business as far as getting his guys going once they get hot.”

As for Thomas, Husker fans should know all about the 6-7 product out of Millard North High School in Omaha. After spending the first two seasons of his college career at Loyola Chicago and last season at Northern Colorado, the 6-7, 235-pound Thomas has started all 18 games for USC and is averaging 11 points, 6.1 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.4 steals per game.

Thomas, who is coming off a 24-point outing against Iowa and a 19-point effort against Wisconsin, is capable from behind the arc as he’s shooting 34.5% (19-of-55). In his last two games, Thomas has gone 5-of-7 from 3.

“He’s having a great year. He’s one of the more versatile players in this league. I’m happy for him, he’s a good kid,” Hoiberg said. “He’s playing really good basketball for them right now. …He can rebound the ball, he can push it and handle it. He’s doing a lot of really good things for USC. …He’s a load out there, especially playing in a front-court position. He’s strong, he’s thick and he’s got good athleticism.”

The professionalism from Ahron Ulis is paying off

With Maryland using a full-court pressure against the Huskers on Sunday, fans saw both of Nebraska’s point guards on the court at the same time in Rollie Worster and Ahron Ulis.

Ulis came off the bench and gave Nebraska a jolt of life. He dished off a career-high 10 assists and only turned the ball over once. He didn’t get his shot to fall against the Terrapins — he scored 3 points and went 1-of-6 from the field and 0-of-1 from 3 — but he helped generate offense for others and did well defensively with four boards and two steals.

The 27 minutes Ulis played were his most since playing 29 for Iowa against Minnesota on February 12, 2023.

“I thought Ahron obviously had his best game in a Nebraska uniform,” Hoiberg said.

Nebraska’s head coach couldn’t say enough about how Ulis has handled everything since he’s been a Husker.

“I’ll say this about Ahron, I give him all the credit in the world. He played six minutes against Rutgers and played pretty well, and didn’t get in there in the second half,” Hoiberg said. “He was as good as anybody we had walking into the gym the next morning. As far as being a leader and using his voice, that stuff pays off. The basketball gods work in a weird way. When you respect the game, when you go out and do things right, it rewards you.”

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Pillen budget proposal would bury all 'good life’ districts, but lawmaker holds out hope for a fix • Nebraska Examiner

Published

11 hours ago

January 21, 2025

Press Room

Pillen budget proposal would bury all 'good life’ districts, but lawmaker holds out hope for a fix • Nebraska Examiner

LINCOLN — All of Nebraska’s “good life” districts appear to be in a precarious spot — not just the embattled one in Gretna — as Gov. Jim Pillen’s proposed budget seeks to deny $5 million a year set aside for the new state incentive that had been committed for multiple years to boost the buildout of those destination sites.

Gov. Jim Pillen gives his annual State of the State speech, which spelled out his strategy to cut state spending. Jan. 15, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

Pillen’s recently revealed biennial budget package targets “Good Life Transformational Projects” as one of about 50 programs and incentives the Legislature and governor approved over the past five years but that Pillen now proposes cutting. It’s part of his strategy to address a projected two-year $432 million state budget shortfall.

Specific to the good life districts, the governor wants to reject roughly $5 million annually in incentives budgeted through 2029, for a revenue savings of about $20 million in four years. The plan notes that the benefit was to stretch longer, for up to 30 years — derived from a now-controversial cut in the state sales tax rate within the district boundaries.

Here’s how the incentive works: Under the 2023 Good Life Transformational Projects Act, championed by then-State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Omaha, the state sales tax within up to five “good life” districts is to be slashed in half, from 5.5% to 2.75%. The idea was that the difference would be redirected to help develop unique, entertainment and shopping districts that ultimately and over time would rake in more tourists and money for the state.

Controversy swirls

Controversy has swirled around the incentive — mostly as it relates to the largest and highest-profile district — in Gretna. The state approved that district based on an application by Nebraska Crossing owner Rod Yates and last April cut the sales tax within the district’s city limits.

Rod Yates at Nebraska Crossing. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)

But Gretna officials and Yates deadlocked over terms for his multibillion dollar mega sports-themed vision. Without an actual project or mechanism in place to recapture the vacated portion of the tax, an average of $300,000 a month in sales tax revenue has been lost. As of November, more than $2.2 million was forfeited, according to an update from the Nebraska Department of Revenue.

The governor told reporters at a budget briefing last week that he regrets signing into law certain funding incentives, including the good life districts, and he sees now as the time to “reverse” the course.

State Sen. Brad von Gillern, who has replaced Linehan as chair of the Legislature’s Revenue Committee, said that he has not seen the bill language reflecting the governor’s request. But he said that, as described in the proposed budget, the entire good life district concept would end.

State Sen. Brad von Gillern of Elkhorn. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

The Omaha senator prefers less drastic measures. He said he is working with a group of state senators on revised legislation that would “preserve the program in a more workable way.”

Besides Gretna, the Nebraska Department of Economic Development has approved formation of good life districts in Grand Island, Bellevue and Omaha. All are in various early stages, with Gretna the last to hold a local election (on Jan. 14) that was required under a 2024 revision to the good life law. Voter approval was needed to tap into the state incentive to help private development.

There is no denying, von Gillern said, that state officials have not been pleased with certain aspects of the law, including that state tax revenue went uncollected in Gretna without even benefiting a project.

Yates persists

Linehan, the sponsor of the original legislation, also has publicly denounced how the law has played out — not only in Gretna, she told the Nebraska Examiner, although that is where her fury was focused.

In her recent criticism, Linehan said the 2024 revisions to the legislation also opened the door for cities to use the incentive in a way she believes lawmakers did not intend, for projects less spectacular than one-of-a-kind. She said that the state did not give up revenue for cities to use the public incentive on non-extraordinary ventures.

State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn. Aug. 13, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

“Shame on me,” she told the Nebraska Examiner previously. “But something is very wrong here.”

Yates, meanwhile, asked the DED on Jan. 13 to terminate his district application. He said he now is seeking someone to push alternative legislation that would help his vision materialize. He said he has amassed partners ready to build arenas and other components and has not given up.

Yates said he has continued to talk with representatives of the Pillen administration. The governor and K.C. Belitz, DED director, had been involved early on in Yates’ vision, at one point traveling to New York to help the former Husker split end’s effort to woo a pro hockey team to Nebraska and the Gretna good life district.

Von Gillern told the Examiner that said he does not plan to introduce separate legislation to catapult that mega project and did not know of any such bills in the pipeline.

State officials said Jan. 13 that they would seek information from Gretna officials to determine if the approved Gretna project and district remain viable. The 2,000-acre district’s boundaries include and surround the Nebraska Crossing campus near Interstate 80 and Highway 31, between Nebraska’s two largest cities, Omaha and Lincoln.

Gretna sees district surviving

DED said it has the authority to terminate the good life district if it determines the approved project is no longer viable and if termination is in the best interests of the state economy.

Gretna’s Mayor Mike Evans has said they would present evidence to the state that the district should continue, even without Yates’ participation. He said multiple developers within the district are capable of delivering a transformative project.

Gretna officials have said they wanted to work with Yates, but he was not willing to budge on what they believed were legal and financial risks for taxpayers. They said his demands involved possible use of eminent domain, as Yates owned only a slice of the property within the district.

Here is a vision of sports fields, housing and more within the Grand Island Veterans Village good life district led by Woodsonia Real Estate. Woodsonia also owns property in the Gretna good life district and is interested in developing a transformational project there as well. (Courtesy of Woodsonia)

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Nebraska

Badger women's basketball loses by 31 at Nebraska

Published

18 hours ago

January 21, 2025

Press Room

Badger women's basketball loses by 31 at Nebraska

LINCOLN, Ne. (WMTV) – Wisconsin women’s basketball lost 91-60 at Nebraska on Monday.

This was the Badgers’ seventh-straight loss. They have no won a game since December 20 and have only one Big Ten win this year.

Junior forward Serah Williams had a game-high 20 points and eight rebounds. Freshman Carter McCray had 14 points and junior Ronnie Porter had 11. The Cornhuskers went on a 15-0 run in the second quarter.

Wisconsin only shot 38% from the floor, while Nebraska shot 54%.

Up next, the Badgers will play at no. 23 Minnesota on Sunday at 2:00 PM.

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