LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A handful of state senators implored their absent colleagues on Tuesday to participate in debate on a bill that would eliminate mandatory minimum penalties for some felonies and that they say could help fix the state’s prison overcrowding problem.
Supporters of the bill sponsored by Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha prolonged debate on the measure as committee executive sessions taking place at the same time left as few as 15 senators on the floor for much of the morning. It would eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for class 1C and 1D felonies, which include possessing 10 or more grams of cocaine or heroin with the intent to deliver, assaulting a police officer and manufacturing or distributing child pornography.
Eliminating mandatory minimum sentences would lead to less chaos and more orderly conduct at prisons, and could decrease the likelihood of prison riots like one that killed two people at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution last week, said Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha. Inmates who know they have a chance of parole with good behavior are more likely to participate in rehabilitative programs, he said, while those serving mandatory minimums could “jam out,” or serve their full sentence and leave.
“We cannot house all the bad people that are in this world,” Krist said. “We have to have a path to rehabilitation.”
Nebraska now has a “patchwork” of sentences based on fads, Chambers said. For instance, second-degree homicide has no mandatory minimum, but selling drugs in a house across the street from a school does.
“Homicides have no mandatory minimum, and that’s more serious than selling drugs in a school zone,” he said. “These are some of the most pernicious types of penalties you can have.”
Chambers’ measure is a “common-sense bill” that will save the state money, said Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln. The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services estimated Chambers’ measure would result in at least 19 fewer inmates in 2019 and save the state more than $180,000 that year.
Pansing Brooks urged conservative senators to look at national advocates for sentencing reform, including the Koch brothers and the American Legislative Exchange Council.
“It’s clearly something that is not a conservative or liberal issue,” she said. “It’s about making sure that our prisons aren’t filled with people who don’t necessarily need to be there.”
Prosecutors including Attorney General Doug Peterson oppose the measure, which they say could put dangerous criminals back on the streets with little or no prison time. Sen. Steve Halloran of Hastings, the sole member of the judiciary committee to vote against advancing the bill, said any sentencing reform should look at the broad range of sentences judges now have to choose from. Prison sentences for a class 1D felony range from a mandatory minimum of five years to a maximum of 50 years.
“Sometimes I think we afford them too much discretion,” Halloran said.
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