Alabama Prisons

The Montgomery Advertiser has been running a very good three part series on the Alabama Prison system .http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20130922/NEWS02/309220016/Prisons-peril-No-quick-fixes-Alabama

The basic problem is that Alabama prisons are at appx 180% capacity and the Stae, especially the Legislature, is afraid that a lawsuit may result either (1) a Federal Court ordering mass releases (see California) or (2) a Federal takeover with huge financial mandates.

Many suggest that the problem is that Alabama is imprisoning huge numbers of non violent criminals, Yet the numbers show 75% of all inmates are there for violent crimes.

Others blame large numbers of people in prison for marijuana possession. Yet the numbers show only 300 (out of close to 30,000 inmates) are in prison for marijuana possession and the vast majority of those have lengthy criminal histories.

In comparison 27% of all inmates are in for either murder or robbery 1st degree.

Solutions???

One suggestion is community corrections/drug courts/pretrial diversion. However these programs require funding to be successful and their funding is being cut, not increased.

Another interesting factoid – since 2000, the Legislature has enacted 73 new felonies while cutting funding to prosecutors and courts and not increasing prison funding.

Comments

countrycat says

September 23, 2013 at 5:36 pm

I remember you've written about the funding issues with courts & crime labs several times:

Budgets and Justice

FY 2013 looks even worse. The Governor's proposed budget would cut DA's by 23% (which equals 35% of what can be cut). The only way that budget works is to transfer appx $200,000,000.00 in expenses from the General Fund to the Education Fund.

The legislature initially said that proposed budget was dead on arrival (do not be surprised if it doesn't rise from the dead). However to balance the FY 2013 budget without those expense transfers means cuts between 25% and 29% to all agencies.

What Price Justice?

The Alabama Department of Forensic Science does all the “CSI” work for law enforcement agencies statewide. They perform autopsies, analyze blood samples for alcohol and drugs, analyze suspected drugs to see if they are illegal substances, perform firearms and ballistic comparisons and DNA comparisons among other things. In the past 3 years their budget has been cut 33%. They are now looking at another 20-25% cut next year.

These problems have been brewing for years, yet the GOP continues to whistle the “tax cuts,” “spending cuts” tune. Maybe that's the reason for all the relaxed gun laws they passed this term…… eliminate law enforcement and courts entirely and just let the people shoot it out amongst themselves.

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