The State of Nebraska got the location for a new prison that it most clearly desired Wednesday when Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and Gov. Jim Pillen signed a memorandum of understanding that swaps 305 acres of land the state purchased at 112th and Adams streets for 300 acres of city property on 70th Street north of Interstate 80.

That agreement came less than two weeks after the state had announced the Adams Street property as the location of the $350 million, 1,500-bed facility that will replace the deteriorating State Penitentiary.

The fact that the penitentiary and its workforce is in Lincoln was one of the primary reasons that the city was selected for a new prison site, along with it being an urban area with a road system with a close connection to the interstate that will provide access for employees and families.

The Aug. 17 announcement of the 112th and Adams site, however, triggered widespread public consternation because a prison at that site would have been in a developing residential area rather than a far less-populated and unlikely-to-be-developed site.

That site was the city property east of 70th Street and McKelvie Road, just east of Lincoln’s landfill. But, when Gaylor Baird was approached about selling the property to the state for the new prison, she initially declined, citing plans to use the land for expanding city recycling and waste management.

The state then purchased the 305 acres that stretches from 102nd to 112th and Adams for $17 million and announced the new prison site, which would have been one mile beyond the city limits but under the city’s planning and zoning authority.

The anguish, particularly of nearby property owners, however, could have been avoided had the siting process been more transparent. While any development that involves land acquisition requires some level of secrecy to get the best price, it appears there was little communication between the city and the state between the city’s initial rejection and the state’s initial public announcement.

The knowledge that the state definitely wanted put the prison in Lincoln could have triggered earlier discussions similar to those that led to Wednesday’s announcement of the land swap.

In the end, though, the site of the prison appears to be in the best possible location if it was going to be in or near Lincoln.

Construction of the new prison is expected to begin in the fall of 2024 and state officials hope that it will be open in 2027.

Sadly, unless dramatic changes are made in the state’s incarceration rate, all 1,500 beds will be full on opening day, continuing the crisis that has the Nebraska prison system among the most overcrowded in the country.

This editorial first appeared in the Lincoln Journal Star on August 31, 2023. It was distributed by The Associated Press.