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Sept. 6, 2022Lincoln, Neb. |  By: AP

Director of Nebraska prisons system announces retirement

prison

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Department of Correctional Services Director Scott Frakes, who has headed the state’s embattled prison system for the past seven years, has announced he is resigning effective next month.

The announcement was made Thursday in a news release, and Frakes said his last day will be Oct. 7. State Fire Marshal Chris Cantrell also announced in the same release his resignation, effective Oct. 14. Gov. Pete Ricketts will announce interim directors to serve in both offices.

Frakes was appointed by Ricketts to the post in early 2015 to help fix high-profile problems in the state’s prison system, but has struggled in the years since with chronic prison overcrowding and staff shortages. He had been on the job less than three months when a prisoner revolt broke out at the state’s maximum security prison in Tecumseh that left two prisoners dead and two others and two staff members injured.

Frakes also received blistering criticism from state lawmakers and others later that year for spending more than $54,000 on foreign-made lethal injection drugs the state never received because the federal government declared them illegal and blocked their importation.