Pubdate: Sat, 22 Feb 2003
Source: Montgomery Advertiser (AL)
Copyright: 2003sThe Advertiser Co.
Contact:  http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1088
Author: Mike Cason, Montgomery Advertiser
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

MORE PAROLES PART OF PROPOSAL

Gov. Bob Riley on Friday offered a plan to reduce overcrowding at Julia 
Tutwiler Prison for Women by sending some inmates out of state, increasing 
paroles of nonviolent offenders and taking other steps.

Riley submitted the plan to U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson, who ruled 
in December that the prison was so dangerous and overcrowded that it 
violated the U.S. Constitution.

"This is the first step in trying to solve a problem that has plagued 
Alabama for a long time," said Troy King, the governor's legal adviser.

Riley's plan would initially send about 290 female inmates to private 
facilities out of state. King said Louisiana was one of the states under 
consideration but no final decision has been made. Riley said the 
out-of-state transfers are a temporary solution.

Riley sent $1 million to the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles on Friday 
to begin the process of hiring 28 new parole officers, expected to be in 
place by March 1. That will enable the parole board to hold special 
hearings for nonviolent female offenders beginning April 7. The goal would 
be to parole about 30 a week.

Tutwiler has a population of about 990 inmates. The plan is intended to 
reduce that to about 750 by the end of June and maintain that level.

Riley will also ask the Legislature for $3.7 million for the Department of 
Corrections to help carry out the plan.

Inmates sued the Alabama Department of Corrections last year, alleging that 
conditions at Tutwiler and two women's work release centers violated the 
U.S. Constitution. Thompson issued a preliminary ruling in December, 
agreeing with part of the inmates' claims about Tutwiler.

Lisa Kung, an attorney for the Southern Center for Human Rights, which 
represents the inmates, said Friday she had not seen Riley's plan. But, she 
said she opposed sending inmates out of state. She said other parts of the 
plan, including the increased paroles and the expansion of community 
corrections, sounded like positive steps. Community corrections is a broad 
set of programs that provide alternatives to prison.

"We're very pleased with anything that permanently brings down the 
population by removing beds," Kung said. "Our concern about sending inmates 
out of state is it just completely breaks off ties with community and 
family support."

Susan James, an attorney who represents the Alabama State Employees 
Association and a group of corrections officers, also said she opposed the 
plan to move inmates out of state. James said the practice of moving 
inmates to other states could eventually cost corrections officers jobs in 
Alabama.

James, a former federal corrections officer and a defense attorney for the 
last eight years, said inmates shipped out of state could not get good 
legal representation. Many are served by court-appointed attorneys who 
already have limited resources to commit to the cases, she said.

"How are you going to communicate with people and protect their interests 
when they're incarcerated in Louisiana?" James asked.

James, who had not seen the plan, said she generally approved of some of 
the other steps designed to offer alternatives for nonviolent offenders. 
Riley's plan includes recommendations expected by the Alabama Sentencing 
Commission this spring. Those would change some property crime laws in the 
state, raising the monetary values that determine the punishments for those 
crimes. Some of those standards have not been adjusted since the mid-1970s.

The commission estimates the changes would result in 500 fewer women being 
sentenced to prison the first 12 months after the changes, which would have 
to be approved by the Legislature.

The Legislature created the Alabama Sentencing Commission in 2000 to study 
sentencing changes that would provide long-term reform for the state's 
criminal justice system.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D