Nebraska legislative auditors charged with looking into the state’s Department of Corrections mess are having a difficult time because . . . well . . . because of the mess.
The auditors say data from the department are unreliable. We are not surprised. Unreliable information plagues many segments of the Nebraska law enforcement and criminal justice system, and the corrections mess is just one more example.
The public-shaming website that exposes registered citizens to state-sanctioned hatred also is unreliable in several respects: It erroneously says everyone on the site is dangerous, which scientific research has shown to be untrue. Nebraskans Unafraid also has documented cases where information on the website is wrong, not because registered citizens reported wrong information but because law enforcement messed it up while entering it into the system.
Bottom line: Anyone looking at the Nebraska Sex Offender Registry website should keep one word uppermost in mind: UNRELIABLE.