Neb. Cuts Prison Sleepovers for Children

Amid protests sparked by a convicted murderer’s request that her young son stay overnight with her in prison, Nebraska’s governor ordered Thursday that the state no longer allow such visits with women serving long-term sentences.

Gov. Mike Johanns directed state prison officials to overhaul a program started in 1974 that allows children younger than 8 to have overnight visits with their mothers in a special section of the prison.

“The policy will be revised so that if an inmate is sentenced to life or won’t be free for many, many years, if ever, the overnight prison privilege will no longer be available,” Johanns said at a news conference.

Nebraska’s prison policy allowing overnight visits for female inmates and their children generated an outcry when inmate Kimberly Faust recently took her former husband to court to demand he allow their 6-year-old son to spend the night with her in prison.

Faust is serving a life term for killing her then-estranged husband’s girlfriend and a stranger who tried to assist the girlfriend.

The former husband, Bruce Faust, has refused to allow the child to spend the night in prison but has allowed daytime visits. A court hearing on the case is scheduled for Sept. 13.

Johanns’ office said it had received hundreds of messages from people around the country objecting to the overnight visits.

Johanns, a Republican, said the program had been designed to assist women who would be incarcerated for a short time and would return to mothering their children when they were released.

Male prisoners are not allowed overnight visits with their children. Johanns said there were no plans to change that policy.