After 45 years the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) will close the Penitentiary’s "Prose and Cons" Braille Unit at the end of March 2025. Over these 4 decades more than 100 inmates have been trained to transcribe books into Braille and have become certified by the U.S. Library of Congress in literary, mathematics, and music Braille transcription, as well as formatting and proofreading. During that time period the Unit has transcribed nearly 2000 books, from literary classics to hard core calculus textbooks, even Red Lobster menus, serving blind and low vision students in Nebraska and throughout the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Started in 1980 through the Penitentiary's Religious Center and the Christian Record Foundation, the Unit quickly expanded to 12 inmates in two years and had produced 85 Braille books with copies going to over 20 states. The Unit was eventually incorporated into Cornhusker State Industries (CSI), the NDCS inmate work program. Since then the group has updated from "Perkins" manual Braillers (which the unit also serviced) to PC's and more automated embossing machines, giving inmates not only knowledge of Braille but also marketable computer skills. The Unit became known for its rare skills in producing "tactile" graphics like maps for the blind. They also trained UNL Special Education students in Braille reading and helped software developers improve their Braille transcription software products.

But the new management of NDCS and CSI has decided that the Braille Unit is no longer profitable and no longer serves their purpose of rehabilitating inmates. This leaves the 15 inmates currently working in the unit without jobs at the end of the month. CSI has not announced what they plan to do with the vast inventory of books already transcribed.