Governor Pillen has named the director of the Illinois Dept of Corrections as Nebraska’s new corrections head. Rob Jeffreys had already resigned his Illinois job when Pillen announced his hiring Monday morning.
Jeffreys has over 35 years in corrections and will be the first Black to head Nebraska Corrections. He succeeds Scott Frakes, who retired in October after 7 years, and will start in 2 weeks on the 17th.
Pillen said even before taking office that the state would conduct a thorough nationwide search for the new corrections director and told the news conference at the Capitol announcing Jeffreys’ hiring that he held firm and didn’t settle for just “very good” when interviewing 7 candidates.
Jeffreys began his career with 24 years at the Ohio Dept of Rehabilitation and Corrections, 21 of them in management including as a warden and agency Chief of Staff. He then spent 8 years as a consultant at the National Institute of Corrections.
Jeffreys spent the last 3-½ years as the top prison boss in Illinois. He told reporters he was contacted by a recruiter, liked what he heard, and agreed to come to Nebraska for an interview. He said what sold him was the reception he got from Pillen via an aide after his flight from Chicago was delayed by several hours.
Jeffreys said the top three challenges facing corrections in Nebraska are infrastructure, staffing and preparing people to be successful when they are released.
He plans to visit each of the Dept of Corrections facilities and meet the staff and the inmates, then talk about some of the great things the department is already doing and the opportunities to make them even better.
Governor Pillen also took time to thank longtime corrections staffer Diane Sabatka-Rine, who has been the last interim head of the Corrections Department for nearly 6 months.
He said she has “significant institutional knowledge (and) will be a great partner to Jeffreys as they work together to move the agency forward.”