Hassebrook to Participate in Debates

Democratic candidate for Governor of Nebraska, Chuck Hassebrook, has confirmed that he will participate in at least three debates for the upcoming election.

Last week, Hassebrook announced that he had contacted his opponent, Pete Ricketts, to plan a series of debates and town halls all over the state. Ricketts declined to participate, stating that his campaign’s calendar was already full.

Details about the debates are below:

WHAT: Debate at Nebraska State Fair
WHEN: Monday, September 1, 2014, 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Heartland Events Center (Grand Island)
WHO: Open to the public
NOTES: Hosted by the Omaha World-Herald, moderated by Mike’l Severe. The debate will stream on the World-Herald’s website.

WHAT: NET Debate
WHEN: Thursday, October 2, 2014, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE: NET Studio (Lincoln)
WHO: Limited seats available
NOTES: A limited number of tickets are available from each campaign. The debate will air live on NET TV and radio, and will be available on NET’s website.

WHAT: Press Club Debate
WHEN: Thursday, October 23, 2014, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
WHERE: Press Club (Omaha)
WHO: Limited seats available
NOTES: The debate will be sponsored by the Omaha Press Club, the League of Women Voters of Greater Omaha, and WOWT. WOWT will tape the debate and air it the same day during prime time. About 200 tickets are available for $15 each, which includes lunch.

Questions about the debates or the Hassebrook campaign should be directed to Meg Mandy, Communications Director, at meg@chuckhassebrook.com or (619) 288-3823.

Chuck Hassebrook

Hassebrook Calls for Special Counsel to Investigate Sentencing Failures

Omaha, Neb. — Today Chuck Hassebrook called on Attorney General Jon Bruning to appoint an outside special counsel to examine systemic failures in the Department of Corrections.

Hassebrook cited Department failures to properly implement state sentencing laws, comply with Supreme Court rulings, and use existing statutory authority to take “good time” away from prisoners for flagrant misconduct, such as attacking prison guards. He said the outside special counsel should be charged with determining what led to the failures in the Department and oversight of it by the Office of Governor, recommending corrective action, and identifying any civil or criminal violations by state officials.

In his letter to Bruning Hassebrook wrote, “I believe an outside special counsel is warranted because of the appearance of a potential conflict of interest for your office in its capacity as legal counsel to the Department of Corrections.”

The failures of the Department of Corrections include the premature release of Nikko Jenkins for so-called “good time” even after he had attacked prison guards, as well as the defiance of Nebraska Supreme Court rulings that direct the Department to require prisoners to fully serve mandatory minimum sentences.

Chuck Hassebrook

Hassebrook Releases Plan on Prisons

Nebraska is facing a prison overcrowding crisis that has been more than a decade in the making. At the same time, scores of violent offenders were released early through administrative failures. Four people were murdered by a prisoner released on good time, when he should and could have lost all good time under current statutes for attacking prison guards and other prisoners. These failures relieved prison overcrowding, but at the expense of human lives and public safety. Other steps need to be taken to both relieve overcrowding and provide long term solutions. Chuck Hassebrook has released his plan on how to deal with these ongoing issues and how to move our state forward:

“When I take office in January, the buck will stop at my desk to ensure that sentencing statutes are fully and faithfully implemented. The failures of recent years would not have happened under my watch and will not happen again under my watch.

“Upon taking office, I will propose and finalize regulations to take every day of automatically granted good time away from prisoners who repeatedly break prison rules, attack guards, or assault other prisoners. Although the Governor currently has that statutory authority, it has not been used. I will use it.

“The option of building or leasing new prison space must be on the table, but I will take every responsible step to avoid that expensive option while protecting Nebraskans from dangerous criminals. I will also take all necessary actions to avoid spending money on additional prison space. I will ask the Legislature to expand drug courts, veteran courts, young adult courts and mental health courts for nonviolent offenders. Such courts cost a small fraction of prison and have proven far more effective at correcting criminal behavior. While almost half of drug offenders who serve time reoffend after leaving prison, only one in seven graduates of drug court reoffend.

“I will search the nation for best practices that have proven successful in reducing both crime and the prison population. I will move parole eligible, nonviolent offenders out of prisons and into drug, veteran, young adult and mental health courts, if they would have been eligible when sentenced.

“I will expand job training and mental health treatment for inmates and provide supervision and job assistance to every inmate upon his or her release to reduce the rate of recidivism and future demands on the prison system.

“I will also invest in long term solutions, like early childhood education, and will work with schools and community colleges to make job training available beginning the junior year of high school. Successful students are far less likely to fall prey to gangs and crime. These actions will reduce future prison and public assistance costs.”

Chuck Hassebrook