Public safety and protecting Nebraska’s families and communities are key to the quality of life that makes Nebraska the best place in the world to live, work, and raise a family. According to U.S. News and World Report, Nebraska has the 15th lowest violent crime rate in the nation. This is part of the reason why Nebraska has the 13th lowest incarceration rate in the country and the lowest among surrounding states.
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LINCOLN, Neb. – Public safety and protecting Nebraska’s families and communities are key to the quality of life that makes Nebraska the best place in the world to live, work, and raise a family. According to U.S. News and World Report, Nebraska has the 15th lowest violent crime rate in the nation. This is part of the reason why Nebraska has the 13th lowest incarceration rate in the country and the lowest among surrounding states.
While Nebraska has a low violent crime rate, there has been a lot of opportunity to ensure that our prisons and criminal justice system help bring that rate down. Over the past three years, state officials have been working to invest in our criminal justice system. This will help bring down the rate of reoffending and give our corrections officers a better work environment. This work has been a three-branch, bipartisan effort focused on five major areas: sentencing reform, funding operations, building prison capacity, improving facility staffing, and expanding
programming.
Over the past few years, all three branches of state government have worked on a series of justice reinvestment initiatives which we’ve successfully implemented. A key piece of this process was a comprehensive look at the state’s sentencing laws. Working together, state government implemented a series of reforms to make better use of supervised release and parole for non-violent offenders. Over 90 percent of the inmates in our system complete their sentences and return to our communities. Better use of programming and supervised release support smooth transitions out of our facilities and ultimately can help reduce the rate of reoffending.