A federal court judge has ruled for the state of Nebraska in a case brought by the state ACLU trying to improve prison conditions.
The ruling released late Monday by U.S. District Judge Brian Buescher, denied class certification in Sabata v. Frakes.
According to the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, the request if granted would “dramatically increase the cost of litigation.”
The Attorney General is pleased the Court denied the inmates’ request to pursue their policy preferences on a class wide basis. As the Court ably stated, “The Nebraska prison system is operated by the State of Nebraska, not the federal government, and certainly not by the federal courts.” The State looks forward to continuing the mission of keeping people safe while providing opportunities for inmates to change their lives for the better.
In 2017, national ACLU lawyers filed suit in U.S. District Court against the State on behalf of 11 inmates incarcerated at the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services.
In a statement, the ACLU says they’ll continue to fight for Nebraska prison reform.
David Fathi, lead counsel on the case and director of the ACLU National Prison Project, said the ruling was in part a win and in part a loss. The court noted that there are serious issues in Nebraska’s prison system and that plaintiffs were appropriate class representatives; however, the essential holding was that the court denied class certification to allow claims to be brought on behalf of the 5,600 Nebraskans incarcerated in the state system.
“Nebraska’s prison system is in crisis and remains the second most overcrowded in the country. It is rife with racial disparities that can’t be underemphasized in this moment. This ruling doesn’t change that,” Fathi said. “We see the crisis in the state’s inability or unwillingness to provide basic healthcare and disability accommodations. We see it in solitary confinement practices that put people back into our community more psychologically damaged than when they arrived.”
The state is now over one month away from declaring an overcrowding state of emergency.