Alabama Prison Numbers on Rise...AGAIN

The Birmingham News is reporting that while the number of state prison inmates declined nationally the number increased in Alabama...mostly due to non-violent drug offenses.

The nation's number of state prison inmates dropped slightly in 2009 -- the first decrease recorded in nearly 38 years -- but Ala­bama's prison population went in the other direction.

According to a report from the Public Safety Per­formance Project of the Pew Center on the States, Ala­bama's jurisdictional prison population -- the number of inmates the state is re­sponsible for housing -- to­taled 31,561 on Jan. 1. That is an increase of 3.5 percent over the population of 30,508 listed on Dec. 31, 2008.

Over the same period, ac­cording to the report, the nation's state prison pop­ulation dropped 0.4 percent, from 1,408,830 to 1,403,091.

Alabama Corrections Commissioner Richard Al­len said his department has been working to reduce its prison population. If the state had not adopted a package of sentencing guidelines several years ago, the population would be even higher, he said.

One problem is that judges and district attor­neys are not using the guidelines as much "as we think they should," Allen said.

According to a Depart­ment of Corrections report prepared for Allen, drug of­fenders made up nearly 34 percent of the 11,729 in­mates who entered the ju­risdictional prison popula­tion in fiscal 2008.

So, 34% of the new entries into the prison system in Alabama were drug offenders. Boy I tell ya, that drug war just works out so magnificently for keeping people from using drugs, don't it?

Why can't legislators grow a pair and stop doing stupid shit like this which only makes the problem worse?

Corrections: Release Inmates to Save Money

I had the following letter published in today's Birmingham News.

Corrections: Release inmates to save money

Much has been written recently about the dire financial circumstances of the Alabama Department of Corrections. According to a story in The Birmingham News, Commissioner Richard Allen said there will be a $15 million shortfall in 2010, which could lead to early releases and layoffs. The state's General Fund is ailing, and it isn't likely the $15 million will come from there. However, I have a simple plan that would provide the $15 million with gobs of money left over.

According to the department's Web site, there are currently 8,641 prisoners serving time for drug violations at a cost of $15,223 a year each. That costs Alabama taxpayers around $132 million a year. If the nonviolent drug offenders were released, that $15 million would be readily available, plus an additional $117 million left over. It's really a no-brainer.

Locking people up in our prison system because we disagree with their intoxicant of choice is responsible for the financial crises. What it hasn't done -- and never will do -- is stop people from using drugs, reduce violence associated with the drug trade or keep drugs out of the hands of children. Think of all the other worthy programs that $132 million could be used for.

Loretta Nall
Alexander City

Corrections Officers: Alabama Prisons a Ticking Time Bomb

AL.com

The head of an Alabama prison employees organization said this morning "it is only a matter of time" before state prisons are overrun by a growing inmate population.

Capt. Lloyd Wallace, who works at the Limestone Correctional Facility in north Alabama, said the ratio of inmates to officers in state prisons is 10-to-1 "in the best of times." That is double the national averge, he said.

"In many cases and during many shifts, the ratio is 200-to-1 or more," Wallace said.

Alabama has about 30,500 inmates and 2,700 correctional officers.

Jarod Massey, a lobbyist working with the the Alabama Correctional Organization, which represents about 600 employees in the prison system, put forth several possible ways for the state to increase revenue to operate the system, generate higher pay and keep more officers on duty.

Those suggestions include raising state lodging tax by 2 percent, removing the sales tax exemption for the trade-in value of a car, and repealing insurance premium tax credits.

State Rep. Barry Mask, R-Wetumpka, who has several major prisons in his legislative district, said corrections is always "at the bottom of the trough" when it comes to state funding.

Mask, however, said in the legislative session beginning on Tuesday, lawmakers are likely to realize the need for more funding in corrections.

"It's all about building a case and incrementally getting there," Mask said. "Nothing happens in Alabama overnight."

Here is a much simpler suggestion that won't cost taxpayers any money. In fact, it will save them over $117,000,000 a year. Release all non-violent drug offenders and change the stupid laws that imprison people for what they ingest. That would take care of around 30% of the 30,000 + inmates in Alabama's prison system.

So, we're still sending prisoners to Louisiana?

I got an email this morning from a gentleman that I met while campaigning for Governor last year. He and his wife attended my very first campaign speech back in Jan. 2006. While there they told me the heartbreaking story of their son, who is sentenced to life. The charge is murder....but it isn't what you think.

See, their son made some bad decisions that involved ingesting alcohol while underage and then driving. This resulted in a car accident where a young boy, who was a passanger in the other car, was ejected and killed.

In my book that isn't murder. Not by a long shot. Vehicular manslaughter? Sure, I could buy that. But murder...NO WAY. And a LIFE sentence?? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!In my book murder involves intent to kill and I think we could all safely assume than an underage kid consuming alcohol never did so with the intent to cause anyone else harm. Yes, it is awful that a young boy was killed in the crash and yes the driver of the other vehicle should be punished...but LIFE?

This kid got life.

Here is the email from his family

Loretta,
My wife and I met you at the Wetumpka VFW club during your run for office. I
had related the story of my underage son being involved in an accident while
drinking and was given a life sentence for murder. We were able to get him
in Draper Prison which was real close to use and we had the ability to go
through the shakedown process and visit him every two weeks. This has been
going on for 7 years an we have been trying very hard to get him in front of
the parole board for a hearing. He completed the Victim Offenders Act of
Judge Tracy Mccouy and was given a certificate of completion. His record is
spotless, but the board refused to review his case only looking at the
murder charge.

Yesterday the state shipped him to Louisiana. They put 13 inmates and guards
into a 12 person along with their duffel bags and shackled the inmates
together. For 7 hours the inmates did not get to stretch or relieve
themselves, but the guards did. I have found a letter from the prison
commission and their spokesman where all inmates would be brought back
before the end of the year. This is on AL.com Inmate population creping up
again dated Nov. 24 2007. On top of the move the phone calls are double that
from Draper.

Do not the fools of the commission understand that the best rehabilitation
is visits with the family? Inmates should be placed in a facility close to
where families can visit with out undue burdens. It will be hard for his 7
year old daughter and his 80 year old grand parents to visit him.now. I have
read your dealing with visits to your brother and am in hope you may be able
to help or advise me on the above issues. I am at a lost and am devastated
by the events of the past days.

So, when did the DOC decide to start moving inmates back to Louisiana? How come no newspapers seem to be covering this? Are they as unaware as the public that we are shipping inmates out of state again? Here is the news story mentioned in the email I got Inmate population creeping up again. And it clearly states on page 2 that in an April memo the prison commissioner said all inmates being housed in Louisiana would be returned to Alabama by the end of the year.

And, why deny prisoners access to toilet facilities for nearly 8 hours? What is the purpose in that? Because they can?

What gives?

I am about to send this out to all of my media contacts and see if I can't scare up some press on the fact that we are sending prisoners out of state again. I have also sent this to Lisa Kung at Southern Center for Human Rights to see what they might could do to help.

Riley: Moving inmates from county jails faster isn't possible

By Desiree Hunter
The Associated Press


Jefferson County officials are looking for other ways to reduce costs and overcrowding in their jails after Gov. Bob Riley told them it is "not physically possible" to remove state inmates from county jails faster than 30 days.

Jefferson County Commissioner Bettye Fine Collins wrote Riley last month asking that the current 30-day limit after sentencing be shortened to 14 days. She said Monday she was let down by the governor's response, which was received Friday.

"I'm disappointed that they can't help us with it," Collins said. "What we're trying to do now internally is be sure that all of our systems of communication are in place and looking to perhaps go to a monitoring system for nonviolent criminals instead of having them in the jails."

Most of the state's 67 counties have their own jails, and inmates who receive state sentences are supposed to be transferred to a state prison within 30 days, according to a Montgomery judge's order approving the terms of a settlement on the jail overcrowding issue.

There were 597 state inmates in county jails with transcripts ready for transfer as of May 25, and about 270 of those were in Jefferson County. At that time, 139 of the inmates had been in county jails for 21-30 days and 11 were past the 30-day time limit.

Sonny Brasfield, assistant executive director for the Association of County Commissions of Alabama, said counties across the state are being burdened by overcrowding and the board has not taken an official position on making its own request to reduce the timeframe.

"We've never agreed that prisoners are our responsibility the first 30 days. There's nothing in the (state) statute about 30 days," he said.

"If our counties contact us and express concern about 30 days, we've always reserved the right to go back to court and talk about that," Brasfield said.

Scott Vowell, who is Jefferson County's presiding judge, is also on the county's Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee, which has been looking for solutions to the overcrowding problem.

"People want to lock up criminals and throw the key away, but no one wants to pay the price that it takes," he said. "If the state can't take them any faster, we'll just have to do everything we can with whatever assets we have."
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Here is an idea to reduce jail crowding immediately and to keep it reduced. STOP LOCKING UP PEACEFUL POT SMOKERS!!! All major cities in Alabama should consider an Alabama style lowest law enforcement priority initiative for marijuana. I have some contacts on the Huntsville city council that I am planning to talk to about introducing just such an initiative in the Rocket City. If you are in one of the major cities in Alabama and have a friend on the city council or would like to present your city council with a lowest law enforcement priority initiative then get in touch with me.

Alabama prison population near high

The Montgomery Advertiser is reporting Alabama prison population near high after end of speedy paroles

Sentencing still critical

February 24, 2007
Editorial
Montgomery Advertiser

Its conclusions are anything but new, yet it is important for Alabamians and their political leaders to take note of a new report from the highly regarded Pew Charitable Trusts on the seemingly uncontrollable prison population here and in many other states. The nonprofit organization does first-rate research and its observations are well worth heeding.

Alabama's prison overcrowding problem is all too familiar. It's been a pressing issue for years. The facts, as ugly as they are familiar, bear recounting.

The number of inmates serving sentences from Alabama now stands at about 28,400. About 1,200 of those are serving time in private prisons in Louisiana, sent there because our state's prisons have no place for them.

More than 27,000 inmates are in Alabama prisons -- in a system designed to handle about 13,000. It's been this way for so long that one suspects many Alabamians have come to see it as the norm, perhaps even to assume that there's little wrong with operating in this way.

There is a great deal wrong with operating in this way. As the Advertiser's Nigel Duara reported, Alabama's heavy incarceration of nonviolent offenders, in particular drug offenders, helps drive the overcrowding problem.

Since 1999, their numbers in the system have increased at twice the rate of violent offenders, and the average sentence for drug offenses is almost 60 percent longer than it was 20 years ago. This is a recipe for trouble -- unless a state is willing to embark on a enormously expensive prison building program that will create the capacity to handle so sizable an inmate population.

A far better approach, fiscally and in every other respect, is more sensible sentencing that sends to prison the offenders who should go to prison, but channels other offenders into less costly and more productive programs. Sticking a nonviolent drug offender in a prison cell is an expensive option.

The Pew report suggests a binding sentencing policy, something more than the well-intended but toothless voluntary standards offered by the Legislature. Although those standards are a decided improvement, the fact that no judge has to abide by them greatly reduces their effectiveness.

It's important to allow some judicial discretion in sentencing, but Alabama's sentencing structure has sentencing ranges that vary too widely. This can result in severely disproportionate sentences for similar offenses, and contributes to prison overcrowding.

According to a statistician with the Alabama Sentencing Commission, if the sentencing guidelines were followed in every court, the prison population would stabilize at about 1,000 inmates below the current level, rather than rising by another 2,000 by 2011. Consider the implications of that for our state.

The case for sentencing reform has been easy to make for years now. The Pew report is one more in a long string of arguments for it.
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It's great that Pew Charitable Trusts came down and got these numbers together and issued these recommendations....but damn, I have been telling the state government this information for free for years and issuing the same recommendations. Stop locking up people who did nothing more than smoke a joint, top locking up people who have harmed no one other than perhaps themselves. It isn't the governments job to protect citizens from themselves.