Pubdate: Sun, 15 Sep 2002
Source: Montgomery Advertiser (AL)
Copyright: 2002sThe Advertiser Co.
Contact:  http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1088

CROWDING NEEDS LONG-RANGE FIX

A threat by Montgomery Circuit Judge William Shashy to impose more than $2 
million in fines against the state has caused the Siegelman administration 
to come forward with a short-term plan to address prison overcrowding.

Now maybe the judge should consider a similar threat of fines against the 
Legislature and against his fellow judges, because a long-term solution 
will require the cooperative efforts of all three branches of government -- 
executive, legislative and judicial.

To understand that the issue of overcrowded prisons is not something the 
executive branch can address alone, Alabamians must look at the history and 
the magnitude of the controversy.

In 1971 when the overcrowding issue first went to court, the state had 
about 112 state inmates per 100,000 population. This year, that number is 
more than 600 per 100,000 population. In 2001, Alabama ranked fifth among 
the states in the percentage of its population in state prisons.

In 1971, 3.44 million people lived in Alabama. The state then had 3,842 
inmates in its prisons, and the Department of Corrections had a budget of 
$8.2 million (about $36 million in today's inflation-adjusted dollars).

But after more than 30 years, while the state's population has increased by 
about one-third, to 4.4 million, the number of inmates has increased about 
sevenfold, to about 27,000 inmates. State spending on prisons also has 
risen about sevenfold, to $254 million.

And there is still a backlog of 1,350 inmates in county jails awaiting 
transfer to state facilities with no place to put them. That backlog is 
what has the prison system back in court.

The plan presented to Shashy last week by the Siegelman administration 
would reduce the number of backlogged inmates substantially over the short 
run by creating an additional 400 beds for inmates either at the Bullock 
County Correctional Facility in Union Springs or at a site in Marion County.

The facility is expected to cost about $4 million, which will be taken from 
the state prison system's fiscal 2003 operating budget, which starts Oct. 
1. The administration is banking on the Legislature replacing the money later.

Those 400 new beds will be in addition to 200 additional beds at the 
Bullock County Correctional Facility and the Donaldson Correctional 
Facility. Those previously announced expansions would be financed from the 
$2.4 million that the prison system is receiving from the sale of prison 
land to the city of Atmore.

While the proposal given to Shashy last week does show the administration 
is trying to deal with this problem, one part of the plan depends upon the 
Legislature allocating additional money and the other rests on one-time 
money from the sale of land.

Similarly, the administration earlier said that it plans to take some of 
the money from the land sale to add 10 probation and parole officers so the 
state can start paroling more inmates and to expand community corrections 
programs. Both are good ideas, but does it make sense to start continuing 
programs with one time money when there is no guarantee that operating 
funds will be there in future years?

Clearly, while the Siegelman administration may be doing all it can without 
getting additional revenue from the Legislature, over the long haul it 
won't be enough to make this problem go away.

For that to happen, two things must first occur:

1-- The Alabama Legislature has to find a source of additional revenue to 
fund prisons and the state's probation and parole systems.

Alabama's prison system is housing far too many prisoners in facilities 
designed for about half the present capacity, and is guarding them with far 
fewer corrections officers than is safe. In addition, parole and probation 
officers are carrying a far heavier caseload than they can adequately deal 
with.

2-- The Legislature has to change sentencing laws to put fewer nonviolent 
prisoners behind bars, and judges need to sentence nonviolent prisoners in 
ways that reserve most prison cells for the worst violent offenders.

For years now, governors and prison commissioners have been saying that 
Alabama did not get into this prison overcrowding mess in a few years, so 
it can't be solved in a few years either. That may be true, but it does 
nothing to make things better.

What is needed, and soon, is a long-range plan to eliminate the prison 
overcrowding problem over a matter of years, and to keep it eliminated. For 
such a plan to work, it will take the cooperation of all three branches of 
government.

The administration has produced a short-range plan. Shashy should keep the 
heat on until a comprehensive long-range plan for reducing prison 
overcrowding is also on the table.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart