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Gage County inmates headed for a cell across the Kansas border now have the option to stay in Nebraska after a state lawmaker complained that housing inmates in another state violates the Nebraska Constitution.

Earlier this month, Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers asked Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson to weigh in on a contract approved by the Gage County Board of Supervisors in late September.

The one-year contract reserved 10 beds for Gage County inmates in the jail in Washington County, Kansas. A similar agreement for five beds was approved with Dawson County in central Nebraska.

Chambers said it violates the state Constitution to take an inmate to another state for any offense committed in Nebraska, and wrote in a letter to the attorney general that it’s a “bit much” to use Nebraskans’ tax dollars to pay another state when no product is received.

On Wednesday, Gage County Sheriff Millard “Gus” Gustafson told county supervisors that inmates must voluntarily sign a waiver to be housed in Kansas. The waiver notifies inmates they have the right to be housed in Nebraska.

Gustafson said all inmates held in Kansas were taken back to Gage County and presented with the waiver. They all signed a waiver and were transported back to Washington County.