LINCOLN, Nebraska - Nearly 140 inmates in the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services will receive notice of updates to their institutional records to reflect disciplinary sanctions that were previously ordered but not applied. The discrepancy was discovered through an internal review.
Director Scott R. Frakes says the issue was not a calculation error and did not impact court-ordered sentences. However, it affected the amount of good time deducted from sentences as a result of violations that happened during incarceration.
“Loss of good time is one of the sanctions authorized by the department when an inmate commits an infraction, like use of drugs, possession of contraband, assault or other behaviors that are prohibited. Those are days that can be assessed against the inmate’s tentative release date. It does not impact a person’s ability to receive parole, nor does it change someone’s sentence structure or the amount of time a judge ordered them to serve.”
The amount of time assessed for these sanctions ranged from 15 days to 180 days. In addition to loss of good time, inmates may have received other disciplinary sanctions including canteen restrictions and loss of yard, phone, visiting or furlough privileges.
The recently discovered discrepancy was found to impact rule violations that occurred as far back as 10 years ago. During this time frame, 204 sanctions were incorrectly recorded. This is out of over 15,000 good time sanctions recorded.
“Whenever an inmate has committed an infraction, a hearing is held. The person is informed of what sanctions are assessed and the right to appeal that determination,” explained Dir. Frakes. “While all of the inmates in this situation received that notification, the sanctions were not documented properly, which resulted in a failure to make the necessary changes in each individual’s TRD (tentative release date).”
One hundred and eighty-seven inmates were sanctioned with a loss of good time that was not applied correctly. Of that group, 45 have already discharged or were released to post-release supervision. Two of those individuals committed a new misdemeanor during the time period when they should have been serving time related to the disciplinary sanction.
“Forty-five individuals got out earlier than they would have, if the sanction had been properly entered,” said Dir. Frakes. “We have taken appropriate steps to assure that this does not occur going forward.”