Pubdate: Thu, 06 Nov 2003 Source: Birmingham News, The (AL) Copyright: 2003 The Birmingham News Contact: http://al.com/birminghamnews/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/45 SCARY NUMBERS Underfunded Prisons Pose Threat To Public There have been a lot of scary numbers thrown about concerning the state's budget crisis. None scarier, however, than those for the state Department of Corrections. It was fitting that prison Commissioner Donal Campbell's testimony before Gov. Bob Riley's Commission on Efficiency, Consolidation and Funding came on Halloween, because Campbell painted a truly gruesome picture of prisons. Thirty-one correctional officers had to watch over 2,130 inmates overnight at Limestone prison near Huntsville, which was designed for 876 prisoners, Campbell told commission members. Meanwhile, just 25 officers guarded 1,766 inmates at the Bibb County prison in Brent, built to hold 900. Those spooky numbers are repeated statewide, symptoms of a prison system dangerously understaffed, overcrowded and a real threat to public safety, according to Campbell. It's the result of decades of chronically shortchanging corrections in state budgets and foolish, get-tough-on-crime laws that needlessly lock up thousands of nonviolent criminals. Alabama, for example, spends $27.50 per day per inmate. That's only half the national average. The state not only can't afford to spend much money rehabilitating inmates, it can't afford even to guard them adequately. Alabama's inmate-to-guard ratio of 10-to-1 is nearly twice the average of its Southeastern neighbors. To make matters worse, 90 percent of Alabama inmates are housed in large, open dormitories - not prison cells. In the event of a large fight, riot or prison break, the task of containing inmates and restoring order is doubly difficult. Alabama has been lucky not to have had a catastrophic uprising at one of its prisons. But the state can't afford to keep depending on luck. The Riley administration has taken some good steps to relieve prison overcrowding. An expanded parole board is expected to parole an extra 5,000 inmates over the next year. The governor also wants to make better use of community corrections, drug treatment programs, sentencing reform and other alternatives to incarceration. But the effort to make prisons safer is severely restrained by the state's budget crisis. Riley's commission, which is looking for ways to cut costs, has a daunting task. Cutting an already anemic prison budget isn't an option; being smarter in how we punish criminals must be. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens