LEGISLATURE
Outside
smoking
targeted
I Proposed bill would keep
smokers at least 10 feet from
doors of public buildings.
'
By Veronica Daehn
Staff writer
Nebraska residents tired of walk
ing through smoke every time they
enter or exit a building could soon
see some relief.
Papillion Sen. Nancy Thompson
spoke to members of the Health and
Human Services Committee on
Friday about a bill that would outlaw
smoking around the entrances to
public buildings.
LB 1033 is Thompson’s attempt
to alleviate more of the secondhand
smoke that some non-smokers are
subjected to in the workplace.
“This is a simple little bill,”
Thompson said. “But it does affect
people.”
vYiui uic passage oi me v^iean /\ir
Act, smokers were pushed outside of
public buildings.
Thompson said that’s why there is
so much smoke around building
entrances now.
Non-smokers are frustrated, she
said.
“(The frustration) is a combina
tion of the public not being used to
smoke and people not wanting to be
in the fog,” Thompson said.
The bill would keep smokers 10
feet away from public building
entrances.
Sen. Marian Price of Lincoln said
she supported the bill because of her
own experiences.
Her office is on the south side of
the Capitol where most smokers
gather, she said.
“I take a long deep breath, walk
through the door, into my office, and
then I exhale,” Price said. “But you
still smell it.”
Mark Welsch, president of the
Group to Alleviate Smoking
Pollution, said 10 feet might not be
far enough.
“Government buildings suck air
through the doorways and into tne
buildings,” Welsch said. “Smoke
seeps in even when the doors are
closed.”
Welsch said smoke affects chil
dren and elderly people the most.
“They walk slower, and they
breathe quicker,” he said.
i nompson discussed another bill
Friday specifically dealing with the
safety of children around second
hand smoke.
LB 1194 would prohibit smoking
at child-care facilities.
Many child-care facilities are
smoke-free now, but this bill would
aim to ensure the safety of children at
all facilities.
Thompson said children are
affected by smoke in ways that adults
are not.
Children are more susceptible to
illness, she said.
Common effects of secondhand
smoke on children are asthma, sore
eyes, upset stomachs, pneumoilia
and ear infections.
Becky Jelinek, a parent and drug
prevention educator, said it is up to
adults to look out for their children.
“We have an obligation to our
children to protect them from haz
ards that they can’t protect them
selves from,” Jelinek said. “Children
da not have a choice to walk away,
and they don’t have a voice in the
matter.”
The committee did not vote on
either bill.
*“ ice system focus of bill
■ Proposal suggests devel
opment of more non-secure
detention centers.
By Veronica Daehn
Staff writer
A bill that Papillion Sen. Nancy
Thompson said would help die juvenile
justice system was held in the Health
and Human Services Committee on
Friday.
According to a 33-page amend
ment to LB 1167, the bill would adopt
the Nebraska County Juvenile Services
Plan Act
The purpose of the bill is to encour
age counties to develop more non
secure detention centers and develop
and expand the availability of the ser
vices those centers offer, the amend
Y
ment states.
The amendment defines non
secure detention as detention with no
“restrictive hardware, construction and
procedure.”
Secure detention is defined as
detention in a structured “hardware
secured facility designed to restrict a
juvenile’s movement.”
“There is a lack of community pro
grams,” Thompson said. “Services to
youth are fragmented, and efforts to
divert youth are not good.”
Thompson said the bill would cre
ate more alternatives for youth deten
tion services within counties.
The amendment also states that
each county would have to develop a
county juvenile services plan by Jan. 1,
2003.
The plan would include input from
local members of a juvenile justice
advisory committee about the existing
risk factors for delinquency in the
county.
The committee would also evaluate
juvenile services available within and
close to the county, the primary secure
and non-secure detention facilities and
a plan to enhance intervention services
within the county.
A Juvenile Detention and
Probation Services Team would also be
created.
This team would include a mixture
of county commissioners, probation
officers, judges, county attorneys, state
senators and Department of Health and
Human Services representatives.
“We need to be fairer in what’s hap
pening to youth across the state,”
Thompson said. “This task force would
sort through those issues.”
The bill states that the Office of
Probation Administration would pre
pare a risk assessment evaluation form
that would be used by probation offi
cers and judges across the state to deter
mine what type of detention a juvenile
needs.
Thompson said the state needs to
intervene early in juvenile crime.
“I think this is a reasonable place to
start to get to the front end of the
process,” she said.
Ron Ross, director of the
Department of Health and Human
Services, spoke against the bill Friday.
Ross said the amendment assigned
unnecessary costs to his department
that it would not normally incur.
He said he was concerned with the
“broad brush” definition of detention.
“Such a definition blurs the objec
tive, and it would be problematic in
implementation,” Ross said. “We sup
port continued improvements in the
juvenile justice system, but the premise
is flawed.”
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