On a rainy Wednesday in Lincoln, an interfaith coalition gathered dozens outside the City-County building with hundreds of marshmallow treats and a message: “Diversion works.”
The group, Justice in Action, is an alliance of 27 faith communities in Lancaster County. Each year, sometimes more than once, they make the same appeal to County Attorney Pat Condon for expanded access to diversion programs to reduce jail overcrowding.
Calls in 2024 and 2025 went unanswered. But this year’s rally fell on an ironic holiday—April Fools’ Day.
“April Fools’ Day may be lighthearted, but this issue is not,” said Rev. Tobi White, co-president of Justice in Action. “Continuing to rely on jail when better solutions exist is costing our community unnecessarily. Diversion programs work and it’s time we fully invest in them.”
Diversion programs serve as an alternative to traditional criminal processing, such as jail or conviction. Geared toward first-time or low-level offenders, these programs can include mental health courts, drug courts and pre-charge diversion programs managed by prosecutors.
To visualize the impact, attendees laid out 672 Marshmallow Peeps across a concrete slab in the building’s front lawn. After a silent moment of reflection, White reminded those in earshot that this number represents a jail population that exceeds Lancaster County’s capacity.
(Photo: Chase Porter, KLIN News)
Citing an August 2025 assessment by the Nebraska Center for Justice Research, Lancaster County’s Adult Detention Facility was built in 2013 with a maximum capacity of 786 individuals. While the facility’s population lulled during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has since rebounded and “continued to grow, with each month inching toward maximum occupancy,” the report says. “At the current rate of growth, the ADF will soon exceed occupancy levels, with the potential to experience grave human and financial costs to the county.”
Further, White said the cost of overcrowding is borne by taxpayers, noting the daily housing cost for one person at $150 per day.
Rev. Tobi White (right), co-president of Justice in Action. (Photo: Chase Porter, KLIN News)
“The joke is on us,” she said. “More than two-thirds of those people in jail are there awaiting trial. That means they have not yet been found guilty. Many of those people are there for non-violent offenses.”
Citing another jail study, commissioned by Lancaster County last year at the cost of $250,000, White said there are two primary reasons for this overcrowding: “One, case processing times are taking far too long. And two, lack of alternatives to jail, such as diversion.”
The crowd cheered when the reverend suggested “the time is now” for the County to invest in diversion programs, despite Condon saying it is too costly, according to White.
“Condon is the gatekeeper to diversion programs, and it’s time to unlock the gates and apply reasonable access to programs that help people and serve our community,” she said. “This year is an election year, and county attorney Pat Condon is not going uncontested.”
Both Condon and his competitor, Democratic candidate Randall Ritnour, have committed to attending the group’s 2026 Nehemiah Action Summit, said White. The event features a series of listening sessions with subject matter experts. It’s set this year for April 30 at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Lincoln.
(Photo: Chase Porter, KLIN News)
Offering a view from inside the system, former prisoner Mandy Muhlenkamp Searle said she has “felt the weight of a society that often prefers to forget people like me ever existed.”
“When I was released, I didn’t just need a paycheck, I needed a community that believed my past was not my permanent identity,” she said. “We often isolate people to correct them, but you cannot learn to be a neighbor in a cage. You learn to be a neighbor by being welcomed at a table.”
Another speaker, identified as Carla, shared an original poem titled The Door is Already Here.
A program, a pathway, a community.
Not charity, not a handout born from unfairness, justice. The jail is full. While chairs and diversions sit empty, more cement, more cages, more expense, more trauma are reached for first.
$150 a day to keep a person in a cage versus $15 a day to walk them toward healing. The math ain’t mathin’. The solution already exists.
It is reachable. It is viable. It is simply not being offered enough.
Nehemiah didn’t build a prison. He looked at what was broken and called the community to rebuild together, each one tending the wall closest to their own door. Justice in action, not architecture, not another building to hold what we’ve refused to reform and heal.
The door is already available. Who holds the key? Who limits and allows access?
If community is inclusive, caring, healing, and working together, then we are responsible for what happens next. This is an election year. We are paying attention. Don’t be fooled.
The event concluded with a song, assisted by the crowd. The chorus: “If you live in faith, if you live in hope, if you live in love, cry out for justice.”
Attendees collected Peeps off the ground and White closed with a prayer.
“The journey is not always easy, and the end will not be ours to complete,” she said. “We build the way to justice as we walk and work together. Amen.”
Justice in Action penned the following open letter to Condon to coincide with Wednesday’s rally: