Co. commissioner lands state board appointment

    Jacci Brown of Champion, who was just re-elected to a second term as a Chase County Commissioner, has been appointed to the Nebraska Jail Standards Board.
    The appointment by Gov. Pete Ricketts was announced Nov. 15, along with a number of other state boards appointees.
    The Nebraska Jail Standards Board was created in 1978 with statutory authority to develop and implement minimum standards for adult jails and temporary holding facilities throughout Nebraska.
    The board was placed with the Crime Commission in August 1981 with the passage of LB 328. With the enactment of the Juvenile Detention Facility Standards in August 1993, the board’s purview was expanded to include juvenile detention facilities.
    “I’m excited,” Brown said of the appointment.
    “I thought it would be interesting since we have a jail here, and it’s an older one,” she said.
    She believes it will be interesting to see the issues the county runs up against locally with its jail addressed as part of her board membership.
    Brown said she’s always been interested in what state officials look for here in their annual jail inspection.
    The board meets four times a year, three of them in Lincoln. A fourth is held outside of the capitol city in a community with a jail.
    Nebraska is one of just a few states to have its standards and inspection program administered by a “grassroots” board, providing opportunity for those impacted by the standards to have input into the process.
    The Jail Standards Board operates as an independent board, but staff and administrative support are provided by the Crime Commission’s Jail Standards Division.
    The board is comprised of 11 members, nine of which are appointed by the Governor for three-year terms.
    Appointed board members include two county commissioners or supervisors, a county sheriff, police chief, juvenile detention facility administrator, administrator of a large jail (an average daily population of greater than 50 persons), member of the Nebraska State Bar Association and two laypersons.
    Brown will be one of the two county commissioners serving on the board.
    Statutorily, the State Fire Marshal and Director of the Department of Correctional Services are also on the board.