LB50 makes several changes to criminal justice by expanding “problem solving courts,” approving “stream-lined parole contracts,” establishing a “parole violation residential housing program,” and terminating a special legislative committee on oversight.
The Senate voted to pass LB50 on June 1, 2023, by a vote of 34 to 15. We have assigned pluses to the nays because this bill is a culmination of the Nebraska Justice Reinvestment Initiative—an unconstitutional and dangerous outgrowth of the nationwide Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) led and funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, with support from ‘progressive’ non-governmental organizations. The goal of the JRI movement, which emerged from the socialist concept of a ‘civil justice corps,’ is to radically overhaul the entire criminal justice system and transform correctional institutions into community agents of ‘behavioral health’ services (e.g., housing, jobs, etc.). As a result, JRI lobbyists push for the creation of ‘advisory councils’ at the state and local levels that, much like ‘civilian review boards,’ seek to redefine public safety in America through exerting control over the policymaking process apart from the legislative bodies of government. Nevertheless, justice is indeed the overall purpose of government. Yet, our judicial system is only as good as it applies the “supreme Law of the Land.” Real criminal justice reform, therefore, does not demand so-called “reinvestment,” but calls for reinstatement of the practice of restitution, based on the republican notion of limited government, which would better protect individual rights and freedoms while actually reducing prison populations and recidivism.