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Series: 13 Of 16

SYSTEM BREAKING DOWN

In a perfect world, when drug dealers and users break the law, they would go to prison.  But ask Talladega County Assistant District Attorney Barry Matson about that perfect world and he just sighs in frustration. 

"Lloyd Wayne Denton was sentenced to two life sentences, plus five years for selling near housing projects," Matson said.  "He was actually on video selling pills while holding his grandbaby, explaining how he made money, where he got the pills."

Denton is eligible for parole in September 2004, and he is not alone. 

Alabama misses the perfect world ideal by a long shot, with the Board of Pardons and Parole set to release 5,000 "non-violent" offenders in fiscal 2004. 

According to the state budget office, the Alabama Department of Corrections budget was increased for fiscal 2004 by $16.2 million, while many other services were severely cut. 

Gov.  Bob Riley also increased the board that processes pardons and paroles from three to seven people, spending $10.3 million for operating funds, equipment and salaries for the extra members. 

As part of cuts, the state also mandated the cancellation of three weeks of court. 

In St.  Clair County alone, that means more than 400 cases will be postponed. 

Still, Riley has said he wants 5,000 inmates released during fiscal 2004.  While the state characterized drug offenses as non-violent, Matson said the classifications are unclear to victims and law enforcement officials. 

"Drug dealers are classified that way, but when someone gets hooked on crack cocaine, they are as dead as if you'd shot them with a gun," Matson said. 

In St.  Clair County, Richard Minor, the senior prosecuting attorney in District Attorney Van Davis' office, agrees. 

A drug dealer, B.J.  Fomby, convicted in three separate drug cases, will have his parole hearing in January, to Minor's chagrin. 

Fomby will have only served 12 months of a 15-year sentence if he is released then. 

"I know the state is under a budget crunch, but there must be someone more deserving of release than a three-time convicted drug offender," Minor said. 

Prison records show Fomby's first look at parole would have been in 2007, but state officials call the mass release of so-called "non-violent" criminals the "cheapest of all options," according to budget records. 

Minor said he believes the early release only gives incentives to criminals who peddle crack cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs in St.  Clair County. 

"There is no incentive not to deal drugs," Minor said.  "The money you can make in two or three days selling crack may be worth 12 months in prison."

For Pell City Police Department Detective Vince Warrington, who works to put drug dealers and users in jail, the system means long work hours with frustrating results. 

"You see the same faces over and over again," he said.  "It's like a revolving door."

The revolving door can be like a single bullet in the revolving cylinder of a gun, he said. 

"A lot of other crimes are linked to dope," Warrington said.  "When I see dope dealers released after a few months, I don't think we are serving the public good."

Talladega County District Attorney Steve Giddens said he struggles with the same revolving door and how to explain it to victims. 

More than 80 percent of crimes are related to drugs in Talladega County, Giddens said.  Even more chilling is the fact first-degree burglary is considered non-violent. 

According to state law, a person commits first-degree burglary if he enters or remains in a home with the intent to commit another crime and is armed with explosives or a deadly weapon and physically harms or threatens to harm people in the house. 

"How can that not be classified as a violent crime? If someone comes into my house with a gun or a knife and stabs or shoots me, I consider that pretty violent," Giddens said. 

Patrick McCluney was sentenced to seven years for distribution of a controlled substance in December 2001.  The parole board, Giddens said, did not consider he had a pending trial for first-degree robbery. 

He was paroled on the drug conviction after seven months in prison.  However, he has been convicted of robbery and is currently serving a 20-year sentence. 

William L.  Jones, serving a life sentence for distribution of a controlled substance, is up for parole in September 2005.  Jones could be back on the streets, despite more than 140 misdemeanor convictions in Talladega Municipal Court and multiple felony convictions, Giddens said.  "I have protested several of the early-release cases," Giddens said.  "But I don't have any hope that the protests will keep them in prison."

And when they are released, Giddens and Minor often have to look in the eyes of victims and explain, and good explanations are hard to find. 

"The only thing I can say to them is, 'I'm not sure what it means,'" Giddens said.  "And that's not a good answer coming from a district attorney."

"The citizens see these guys back on the street corner and they say, 'What are you going to do about the drugs?' The police officers make the arrests, we prosecute them and before we can take a breath, they're back on the street again," Minor said.  "We almost feel like the mouse on the spinning wheel."

Warrington feels the same way, but he still works the long hours.  These days he said he hopes there is something in a case that will allow federal prosecution. 

"In a federal case, they serve most of their time," he said.  "We need truth in sentencing.  If you sentence them and they're out in a few months, what message are you sending?"