Reported by Donna Wilson, STATEWIDE Correspondent

Greg Barton is head of the class of 1996. He's the lead attorney in a class action suit against the State.

[Greg Barton, attorney] This is not a case where a federal judge was somehow hoodwinked into believing a bunch of inmates who are known to lie. This is a case where the Department of Corrections' own statistics, the Penitentiary's own statistics, their own records and their own testimony is what convinced the federal court that there was a constitutional violation that needed to be remedied.

For almost ten years the Nebraska Department of Corrections has been in the courts with this case. Finally last month, a settlement. For the first time in Corrections Department history, in favor of the inmates.

[Nebraska Dept. of Corrections Director Clark] We have faced numerous class action situations as they pertain to conditions of confinement, namely, the increased numbers, and to this point they have not availed.

Until now. Jerry Jensen was one of the first inmates to level charges of random double celling. The State Pen didn't have enough space for a single room, so they gave Jensen a roommate.

[Barton] When it first happened, I believe Mr. Jensen -- his roommate told him I don't want a roommate, you will be gone when I get back, or this is going to happen again. Within three days after he had been randomly double celled, he got the heck beat out of him by his cell mate. He was three feet away from his door. He was yelling for help.

Like something from a Charles Dickens' novel, in its early days the Nebraska State Penitentiary held only several hundred prisoners. Today the Department of Corrections by the year 2000 is looking at jailing 100% more men than it was designed to hold. The result -- more problems on the inside. We'll call him Peter. It's been six years since he began working with the Department of Corrections. He's been thinking a lot lately about a career change.

[Peter] Back in 1991 we had a problem with some Muslims and the gang of the Crips got into an an altercation. Started out kind of small out at the L.C.C. By the time I arrived, they estimated there was between 175 and 20 inmates fighting on the compound.

Peter works at the one of the Nebraska Department of Corrections facilities. It was built for 168 inmates. He says it houses about 370. In all, Nebraska has nine adult facilities. Five of those are, by the Department's own admission, overcrowded.

[Clark] As a system today we are right about 151% of capacity. What that actually means is we are 51% beyond our design capacity.

We'll call him Mark, and he works at a different facility than Peter.

[Mark] There's more pressure on the yard. There's more fights on the yard. Some guys are not paying off their gambling debts. Some guys are not paying off their drug debts so they get jumped on. So some of the older inmates are complaining about the problems on the yard.

This bulging system has spirited complaints from guards, pleas from the administration for more funds, and a barrage of lawsuits from prisoners like Jensen which questions the constitutionality of overcrowding, in this case double celling. George Green, attorney for the Department of Corrections.

[Department of Corrections attorney George Green] You know, the constitution doesn't prescribe a ceiling, okay. The constitution is a floor. You can't fall below the constitutionally-prescribed minimum. As a correctional practitioner, my role is to allow Harold Clarke, Karen Shortridge, Frank Hopkins, those policymakers and policy implementers to do what they think is the right thing to do free form interference from a state or federal court. Typically we go way beyond the minimum required.

With overcrowding comes more specific problems. Two major ones -- escalated violence and fewer services to accommodate prisoners. The State Ombudsman has investigated complaints originating at the Department. Most were minor incidents and none were substantiated. But complaints to the legislature have been in such high numbers, the Judiciary Committee lodged an investigation into medical for inmates. Inmates responded in droves.

[Rebecca Trammel, American Civil Liberties Board member] Too many prison including the Nebraska prison system work on a knee jerk response. Hit them hard enough, and they respond. But until something actually happens, they're not going to take much action. It's easier.

Rebecca Trammel is on the American Civil Liberties Union-Nebraska board. She feels complaints from both guards and prisoners. ACLU-Nebraska three years ago started a prison committee because of all the complaints they received.

[Trammel] We track for patterns, and we do see, for example, from oh, I think it's the Lincoln Correctional Center, we see more complaints about mental health issues. We see more complaints from the State Pen -- from the State Penitentiary about overcrowding issues. So we do see some patterns.

Rudy Rosales is an inmate at the State Pen. He says the overcrowding is less the issue than the way the administration handles it. He calls the method of matching cells a joke and a danger.

[Rudy Rosales, Nebraska State Penitentiary inmate] And they need to really take a close look at who they're housing inmates with as far as the compatibility clause is concerned. And they need to go ahead and start making the adequate room. In other words, double celling in cells that were only designed for one man, they should stay to that. Keep it one-man cells and just make another unit.

The court has agreed with part of what Rosales says. It's laid out very specific rules the institution is now under court order to follow. Considerations in bunking inmates together include but are not limited to past violence, victim potential, nature of the crime, mental and physical health. A classification system was already in place by the Department. Some question, however, how much it had been enforced. Another uphill battle -- the place where the inmates are classified initially, diagnostic and evaluation, is that which is the most crowded.

[Clark] In that unit they're subjected to a battery of examinations --psychological examinations, family history examinations, criminal histories and so forth, educational testing. All that needs to be done in a short period of time in an effort to then classify the offenders and then transfer them to what we call their home facility. And right now we are backlogged at the D.N.E., so to speak. The time period in getting those offenders processed through has been somewhat increased because of numbers. It's because of numbers that first four and now five units are on the Penitentiary grounds. It's because of numbers that two modular units will be built this biennium. It's also because of numbers that Peter didn't want his face shown during this interview.

[Peter] The inmates are up from say, 6:00 in the morning until at least 9:00 at night. You know, they don't have the luxury, I suppose you could say, of going back to their cells and laying down. Very grumpy individuals to deal with throughout the course of a day.

Beyond grumpy, would you say dangerous in some cases?

[Peter] Yes. Yeah. They have a tendency to get real frustrated, especially if they get passed over for a room.

The frustration coupled with sheer numbers may have manifested themselves in more concrete ways. Over the past couple of years, misconduct reports have increased steadily. Prison officials are among those looking for remedies beyond building prisons, even if that is the ultimate fix. In asking for more money from the legislature, they know we'll get what we pay for.

[Clark] We don't only protect the public by locking inmates in prisons. We also protect the public by making sure or at least attempting to make them better persons so to not endanger the public once released from prisons.

Jerry Jensen, the original plaintiff in the overcrowding case, was released from the State Pen years before the case was ever resolved. His whereabouts are unknown.

Reporting for Statewide, I'm Donna Wilson.