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20_
_November 9, 1995_
Above the wim__ ,
Travis Heying/DN
A young Husker fan shows her support during the men’s basketball team’s first game of the season. Nebraska
defeated Spalding America 113-68 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Wednesday night.
Panel discusses boot camps
By Ted Taylor
Staff Reporter
Youth correctional boot camps, styled after
military basic training, have become a more
popular alternative to prisons in nearly 25 states.
Nebraska could be next.
A four-member panel Wednesday discussed
the possibility of Nebraska joining such states
as New York, Georgia and Oklahoma in estab
lishing the youth camps.
An audience of 100 people turned out in
Love Library for the seminar, “An Alternative
to Prisons: Youth Correctional Boot Camps —
Can They Work?”
“Boot camps have come about in response
to a rising crime rate and demands for harsher
treatment,” said Susan Jacobs, associate profes
sor in the University of Nebraska at Omaha
criminal justice program.
Jacobs said early plans for the camps tried
to deal with overcrowded prisons and took a
much more militaristic stance.
“But that approach was increasingly ob
jected,” she said. “A program like that lent it
self to psychological and physical abuse.”
The panel also discussed the idea of hard
labor programs within the boot camps.
Nebraska Supreme Court Judge John Wright
said the programs were meant to focus on two
things: rehabilitating offenders and reducing
prison overcrowding.
“If it is to work,” he said, “the work programs
must enhance practical, interpersonal skills and
minimize the incarceration aspect.”
Jacobs said there were three rationales for
the work program: to punish, to rehabilitate and
to shock.
But she said early evaluations of the work
programs showed they did not lower recidivism
rates. Instead, she said, it sent offenders into job
markets that didn’t need their skills.
Wayne Osgood, associate professor of soci
ology, cited a University of Maryland study that
looked at various boot camp programs in other
states. The study was used as an aid in trying to
design a camp for Nebraska.
“We are trying to find what is consistent with
all the other programs,” he said.
But Deputy Attorney General Laurie Camp
said Nebraska’s camp would stand alone.
“We have the opportunity to design our own
program and our own facility,” she said. “We
shouldn’t have to model ours after any specific
one.”
The Maryland study addresses who should
be put in the camps and how time in the camps
should be spent.
Gov. Ben Nelson’s 1993 crime bill included
the Regimented Inmate Discipline program with
a provision for a youth camp. It was repealed
for financial reasons.
Camp said she was hesitant to call this the
“boot camp bill.”
“The cost of a barracks style facility was
$50,000 per bed,” she said, “which is less ex
pensive than building a new medium security
facility — $90,000 per bed.”
The total estimated cost for the facility is $5
million. Camp said, which is a reasonable
amount.
The bill likely will come up again in the next
legislative session, Camp said.
“At that time, we will need to persuade the
Legislature that the up-front cost would be out
weighed by the long-term savings,” Camp said.
Powell says
he won’t run
in ’96 race
WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of
“prayerful consideration” that captivated the
nation, Colin Powell awkwardly embraced the
Republican Party on Wednesday but said he
would not run for president in 1996 because it
was “a calling that I do not yet hear.”
Ending an extraordinary political mystery,
Powell ruled out seeking any elected office next
year. Instead, he said he would dedicate him
self to restoring “the spirit of Lincoln” to a Re
publican Party much more diverse than many
conservatives admitted.
“I’m sorry I disappointed you,” the retired
general said in a tribute to the thousands of ev
eryday Americans who had urged him to run,
through letters and draft Powell efforts.
“We’re devastated,” said James Lynch, a New
York lawyer involved in the draft effort. Said
Tim Bush, an organizer in New Hampshire: “I
think really the country is the loser.”
Such support brought him to the brink of a
candidacy, Powell said, but in the end he stepped
back from elective politics — for now anyway.
To run for president, he said, would demand
“a passion and commitment that, despite my
every effort, I do not have for political life, be
cause such a life requires a calling that I do not
yet near.
“For me to pretend otherwise would not be
honest to myself; it would not be honest to the
American people.”
Powell also ruled out being the GOP’s vice
presidential nominee but said he might consider
an appointed government position. Many Re
publicans, even Powell critics, said the retired
general still was almost certain to be consid
ered for the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket.
Powell’s decision left 10 major declared
Republican candidates and one GOP giant still
sitting on the fence: House Speaker Newt
Gingrich.
Gingrich said anew he was unlikely to run
for president but that he would talk it over with
his wife after Republicans finished the budget.
One of the remaining declared candidates,
Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, said Wednes
day that lackluster fund raising in recent weeks
might force him to suspend his long-shot can
didacy. He said fund raising had been stagnant
while potential donors awaited a decision by
Powell.
As he bowed out of the presidential race,
Powell for the first time pledged political alle
giance to a Republican Party he said was rightly
dedicated to balancing the budget, cutting taxes
and shrinking government.
“I believe they have ideas and energy at this
time that I can agree with,” he said.
But he bluntly rebuked prominent conserva
See POWELL on 2
ASUN, caucus debate proposal
By Kasey Kerber
Staff Reporter "
Faculty Women’s Caucus represen
tatives and ASUN met for the second
time Wednesday night to debate the
caucus’ proposal to make the student
code of conduct tougher on violent
crimes.
The caucus had
changed sections
of its proposal
since last week’s
Association of
Students of the
University of Ne
braska meeting.
At that time, the
student senate
voted not to sup
port the caucus’
proposal. Instead, ASUN passed a bill
vowing to suggest changes to the code
only after working with the
chancellor’s new task force on student
violence.
The caucus’ proposal would sus
pend students accused or convicted of
a violent misdemeanor from intercol
legiate events or activities in which
they represent the university.
The proposal came after NU foot
ball coach Tom Osborne allowed I
back Lawrence Phillips — who was
found guilty of assaulting a former
girlfriend — back on the team.
Mary McGarvey, an associate eco
nomics professor representing the cau
cus, explained the changes to the
group’s original proposal.
In the original proposal, a student
accused of a violent crime would face
a University Judicial Board proceed
ing within five days. The group’s pro
posal now requires that the proceed
ing be held “as expeditiously as pos
sible.”
The faculty caucus also removed a
portion of the proposal that would sus
pend a student convicted of a violent
crime from participation in school
sponsored activities for a period of
seven years. The proposal now would
suspend the student for “a period of
time to be determined by normal pro
cesses.”
After explaining the changes,
Me Garvey and Helen Moore, chair
woman of the sociology department,
fielded questions and concerns from
ASUN senators for most of the meet
ing.
Andrea Vuko, a business senator,
voiced one of the senate’s main con
cerns: that the proposed changes un
fairly target those students who par
ticipate in university-sponsored activi
ties.
“The main problem I see with this
proposal is that it discriminates against
See ASUN on 6
Harms family accuses
Barney of defraudation
py jen z.eieny
Senior Reporter
The family of Candice Harms filed
a lawsuit this week that alleges con
victed murderer Scott Barney has de
frauded the slain UNL student’s estate.
A Lancaster County District Court
jury awarded the Harms family almost
$36 million in a wrongful death civil
lawsuit last month. Stan Harms has
said he does not expect to “see a nickel
of that money.”
However, in the lawsuit filed Tues
day, Candice Harms’ parents and her
sister allege Barney attempted to ma
neuver his way around paying part of
the $36 million awarded by the jury.
The Harmses claim that Barney
was entitled to a credit union account
that exceeds $19,000. But Barney
signed away his right to the Lincoln
Goodyear Employees Federal Credit
Union account in July, The account,
originally co-owned by Barney and his
father, became Barney’s after his fa
ther, died in February.
The lawsuit alleges that Barney
signed away his $19,000 account to
his sister so he wouldn’t have to turn
the money over to the Harms family.
Barney is serving a life sentence for
the 1992 murder of Harms, then an
18-year-old University of Nebraska
Lincoln freshman. His accomplice,
Roger Bjorklund, was sentenced to
death.
Harms was missing for 12 weeks
before Barney confessed his involve
ment in the case to police. For his co
operation, he was guaranteed a life
sentence if convicted.
