Willis Sanders has been in the Nebraska Prison system and has been attempting to

reform the Department of Corrections by participating in self-help groups. We met many

years ago when I was a staff member at Catholic Charities and working to help Family

and Friends of Inmates, a community group devoted to helping families and friends

address challenges in the Nebraska prison industry complex. Willis has testified before

the Nebraska Unicameral about his experience dealing with the draconian system.

Willis is working on several projects, and will expose or share those anomalies during

this interview.

Some years ago, Willie Hamilton and Preston Love Jr. helped secure the previous

Director of Corrections& Scott Frakes attendance at a community forum in North

Omaha, where he spoke about the policies and reforms he was pursuing during his

tenure. To my knowledge, this was the first and only time during Frakes’s lackluster

career in Nebraska that he appeared in North Omaha with a community group that was

not handpicked.

Nevertheless, African Americans make up about five or six percent of the state

population, yet they make up over 28 percent of the inmates in the Department of

Corrections. What gives. We know that there are a few African American guards or

other guards of Color within that system. Historically, there have been few African

Americans in leadership roles across correctional departments. The Parole Board is

ineffective and needs better oversight and common-sense training, as evidenced by its

low caseload and leadership.

We will talk about what can be done to enact real reforms to reduce recidivism and,

most of all, to involve prison advocates so that it does not resemble an apartheid

system like other public systems in Nebraska. Omaha Plantation Schools is part of the

school-to-prison pipeline nationwide, and the data reflect this anomaly.

The Nebraska Prison System.