OMAHA, Neb.: Nebraskas prisons face a persistent staffing crisis that has created dangerous conditions, including maximum-security units that are going unstaffed for hours at a time and one incident where an employee fell asleep on the job and woke up to inmates holding his keys, according to a new watchdog report.
The Inspector General of the Nebraska Correctional System warned in its annual report that the long-standing prison workforce shortage has become a “mass exodus” as burned-out employees leave their jobs. The independent watchdog agency was created six years ago and reports problems in the prison system to the Legislature.
With great frustration, six years in, we can only conclude that this crisis has grown alarmingly worse, Inspector General Doug Koebernick said in the report. A system which was already struggling to recruit and retain staff is now grappling with a mass exodus.
The report said the problems stem from correctional staff working remarkable hours sometimes…