Originally aired November 9, 2001

Nebraska newest prison will soon open for business. The first inmates arrive at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution later this month. It will open in three phases, eventually housing nearly 1,000 prisoners, including the most serious offenders in state custody.

The new prison was built to ease overcrowding in Nebraska's prisons - the state penitentiary alone has nearly 500 more inmates than capacity. People living near the prison hope it serves another purpose - boosting the local economy. That's why they spent more than $2 million to bring it to southeast Nebraska.

"Statewide's" Mike Tobias takes you inside for a tour of the $73 million facility, and looks at the impact on its neighbors outside the walls.

VIDEOS

Watch the Perspective story here:
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Fred Britten, warden of the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution, talks about what life is like for inmates.
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Steve Johnson, Tecumseh economic developer, discusses the economic impact of the prison so far.
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Johnson talks about how long it will take for Tecumseh to see further growth from the prison.
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TRANSCRIPT - Tecumseh Prison

Reported by Statewide correspondent, Mike Tobias

In September more than eleven thousand people showed up to look at a place they hoped to never be inside again, Nebraska's newest prison. A few weeks before the first prisoners were scheduled to arrive the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution opened its doors to a curious public. They had plenty of questions.
[Visitor One] "Like the kitchen help, do they get any special privileges for getting up so early in the morning?"
[Visitor Two] "If you're working from, you know, eight o'clock to noon or whatever it is you can't be out here."
People came here with an image of prisons created by movies like "Shawshank Redemption." What they saw surprised them.
[Gerhard Schmidt] "They got better facilities then I got at home almost. (No.) They're nice, they really are. (Yeah)"
[Bob Jansky] "Its probably a little difficult for these people being in this place and I think getting a look at it I know I don't want to be here."
[Rita Miles] "I think the cells are a little smaller than I had anticipated. A little more claustrophobic."
The prison dominates the landscape north of Tecumseh - sitting on a 200-acre site. Nearly a thousand inmates will eventually live here. From the gatehouse, a long underground tunnel takes you inside. There are things you expect to see - two 12-foot high fences with built-in detection systems. And fences topped with razor wire sharp enough to cut through gloves. More razor wire is piled in between fences.
You don't see guard towers. There's just one in the middle of the prison yard. Instead you'll find cameras on the fence line. And two vehicles patrolling this road just outside the fences 24 hours a day.
[Britten] "We've seen it around the country where this type of security system provides a very secure parameter for the institution."
Most inmates will live in one of these two general housing units. Each holds about 250 prisoners. Two men in each cell, with a sink, toilet and desk. Inmates can't have any more personal items than can fit in this cabinet - and that includes clothing.
An average day stpers shortly after six for breakfast - with a lock-down around 8:15 at night. Inmates eat three meals a day in the food service. Up to three thousand meals will be served here daily. An outside vendor oversees the operation. Prisoners still do most of the work. Meals are similar to what you'd find at a school cafeteria. All Nebraska corrections facilities use the same menu.
[Britten] "There could be macaroni and cheese, it could be liver, it could be roast beef, turkey, you name it. We'll serve it all here."
One innovation at Tecumseh is a blind serving line. Its designed to stop disputes over things like the size of the portion one inmate is serving another.
[Britten] "As they come along the serving line here the trays are served up here and then when the tray is complete its fed out through the blind serving window. And then if anybody just picks it up on the other side… so at no time do they see who's serving the trays… who's on the other side of the wall."
All inmates work or take classes. These classrooms are part of the educational facility. Omaha-based Metropolitan Community College provides courses at Nebraska prisons, including Tecumseh. High school, college and English as a Second Language courses are among those offered. Many inmates come to prison with little education.
[Britten] "Learning those basic skills and having some basic knowledge obviously enhances the opportunities for them to go out into the community, secure a job, and then maybe minimize the opportunities for them to come back to the institution."
Prisons usually have some sort of industry - making license plates probably comes to mind. Here it's laundry. It's not ready yet, but the Tecumseh prison will eventually do laundry from this prison and facilities in Omaha, Lincoln, Hastings, Beatrice and Grand Island. More than five million pounds per year.
[Britten] "One, they need to be busy. And two, it gives them some responsibility to earn money and to use it appropriately."
About a hundred prisoners will work in two shifts at the laundry. Other industries will start later. The highest-paid inmate workers make about a dollar an hour. They use the money to buy personal items like soap and deodorant.
Sports are a popular free-time activity. So is religion. This outdoor worship area is for Native American Sweat Lodge cleansing ceremonies. It's also for prisoners of the Asatru faith who worship Nordic gods. Prisons may have more religious diversity than anyplace else in Nebraska. Outside volunteers help coordinate programs.
[Britten] "There are lots of different walks of faith with the inmates that are here. And some of the religious groups don't have necessarily a lot of participants but… if it's a recognized religion and there are a small number of inmates that want to practice that, then we're obliged to work with that religious request."
A medical clinic is staffed 24-hours a day. It has sick-call, dental and eye clinics, an X-ray lab and pharmacy. Its run by an outside contractor - Correctional Medical Services. Tecumseh is the only Nebraska prison with this arrangement.
[Britten] "We're looking at this as an opportunity to be fiscally responsible and appropriately manage our medical expenses."
Life is much different for some inmates. The 192 bed Special Management Unit is for problem prisoners.
[Britten] "And the reason they would be housed here is if they'd been involved in some sort of assaultive or disruptive behavior in our general population. And to house them in our general population would create safety and security concerns."
Inmates here have few privileges. Just three showers and five hours in the yard a week, for example. The most disruptive prisoners end up with even more isolation - in cells with separate showers and small yard areas.
They talk to visitors from behind bars through the use of television technology that's unique to Tecumseh. Guests are in a video visiting room at the front of the prison.
[Britten] "It allows us more control over their activities and so the less contact we have to have with them as staff, then the less opportunities they have to be disruptive."
Tecumseh will also house Nebraska's death row. The six men currently on death row will move here next May. Executions will still be held at the State Penitentiary in Lincoln.
[Britten] "It's a maximum custody facility and so its an appropriate place to house death row. And secondly, with the facility being maximum custody institution it gives us an opportunity as a department of corrections to house the death row facilities separate from where they conduct the executions."
Death row is separate from the rest of the prison population. Its in a building that also houses inmates with substance abuse and mental health problems. Death row inmates will rarely leave this area - they'll eat here and have a separate exercise yard. Its no surprise this area drew a lot of attention from open house visitors.
[Visitor three] "So they have free range of this area."
[Britten] "Yes, yes they do."
There are still a lot of unanswered questions outside the prison walls. Questions about the impact the prison will have on Tecumseh and other towns that fought hard to have it built in their backyard.
The 112-year-old Johnson County courthouse is getting a half-million dollar facelift. Its needed because crimes committed inside the prison will come through the county court system. County attorney Steve Mercure expects a 33-percent increase in felonies the county will handle.
[Steve Mercure] "The actual prosecution of individuals and the defense of those same individuals by attorneys will be something that the county will be responsible for. And because of the issues about security and other things that our courtroom facilities were certainly outdated and dilapidated."
The state won't pay for the renovation, even though it helped create the need for the work. It also won't pay for other costs the county will incur - like hiring a public defender and providing additional court security. Mercure says this could cost the county another 40 thousand dollars a year. He'd like the state to help.
[Mercure] "What we'd like to see and what I think would be appropriate would be where any county or state correctional facility is located that the state would assist in some manner with the reimbursement toward expenses that are incurred by those counties."
There are also plenty of unanswered questions about the prison's impact on Tecumseh's economy.
[Elaine Kuhl] "I'll just owe you one, right? Okay."
Elaine Kuhl has managed the Tecumseh Subway since it owned two years ago. The company pushed up opening the restaurant after the prison announcement.
[Kuhl] "It has been busier than… then they had predicted it to be anyway. Which is a good thing."
[Peterson] "Phoenix Computer Services, this is Jack. May I help you?"
A Beatrice-based computer store opened a branch office next door. So far business has been slow.
If the owners… you or Ralph had to do it over again, would you move to Tecumseh?
[Peterson] "It'll all depend on what happens. As of now, probably not."
Across the street is a new housing development for 160 houses, 24 townhomes, and nearly 200 apartments.
[Speckmann] "We used to build one house at a time, you know, so the development has just completely new to the whole community. I mean, we're treading on water we've never been in before."
Speckmann says the local real estate market went crazy after the prison announcement. Prices wet up 30 to 40 percent.
[Speckmann] "We had people from all over trying to buy up property."
Things have since settled. Some prison workers have located in the area - about three-fourths of those hired so far live within fifty miles. But hiring has been a slow, gradual process. And the average prison worker makes about 25 thousand dollars a year - meaning for some there's not a lot of money to spend. Building in this development was also slowed by the bankruptcy of one developer.
[Clerk] "One, two and three."
The local True Value hardware store paid the price for the developer's financial problems. Bills for lumber and materials went unpaid.
[Holthus] "You're talking in the thousands of dollars."
In spite of the loss, Holthus is still upbeat about growth the prison may bring to town.
[Holthus] "I think it's a positive thing. I think its not… you know, everybody thought it was going to be a great big boom right away. I don't think that's going to happen; and you know, truthfully it hasn't happened."
Impatience is a common theme throughout Tecumseh.
[Steve Johnson] "You know, people say anticipation and people concept of exactly how it was going to happen and what the circumstances were behind it happening were probably a little bit different than reality."
Steve Johnson may know this better than anyone. As Tecumseh's economic developer he gets paid to sell the town to prospective businesses like Dollar General.
[Johnson] "We'd like to have you downtown to stimulate the retail aspect of downtown maybe."
Johnson was a driving force behind bringing the prison to southeast Nebraska. He says Tecumseh is already seeing some benefits.
[Johnson] "The state of Nebraska is presently a utility customer of the city of Tecumseh. There's obvious gain there. You know. Revenues on the sewer and water are coming in now and… and those quite frankly will pay for the improvements that we make. And those improvements not only benefit the prison but they benefit the city also."
But Johnson says it will take about ten years for Tecumseh to experience the full economic impact of the prison. In that time he sees gradual business development… More workers moving closer to town… A population growing to three thousand, thirteen hundred more than now… And economic stability. That would be a welcome change for a town that's felt the problems of the farm economy. And lived with the ups and downs of its largest employer, MBA Poultry.
[Speckmann] "It was a depressed economy I think; and this is maybe the boost that we need to get the schools going and the town thriving again."
For now, Tecumseh is getting to know the prison like any other new neighbor. Stopping by for cookies and conversation… snooping in the cupboards of the house… and wondering whether it will be a welcome addition to the neighborhood.