Pubdate: Wed, 19 Jan 2005
Source: Birmingham News, The (AL)
Copyright: 2005 The Birmingham News
Contact:  http://al.com/birminghamnews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/45
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

REALITY CHECK ON PRISONS

Reality check on prisons Wednesday, January 19, 2005 This year, the
state of Alabama is spending $270 million on its prisons. Next year,
prisons Commissioner Donal Campbell wants $580 million from the state
- - an increase of $310 million from a General Fund budget that itself
is expected to be nearly $300 million short of maintaining the current
level of state services.

Campbell's unrealistic budget request is, in fact, a dose of reality
for the state. While there is zero chance prisons will get more than
twice the money they're getting now, the request indicates how bad off
our prisons are.

State prisons are housing about 27,000 inmates in space designed to
hold only 12,000. What the state spends on prisons per inmate is less
than half the national average. We have half the number of corrections
officers we should have.

In short, Alabama prisons are hopelessly overcrowded and dangerously
understaffed.

Campbell's request for more money isn't a plea to bring Alabama's
prison funding up to the level of other states, including our
Southeastern neighbors. Rather, it's a price tag he's put on meeting
prisons' real needs. Most of the money would be to build two new
prisons - one for men and one for women. Increased costs for health
care for workers and inmates also are factored.

The reality Alabamians must face is that the state can't hope to build
itself out of the prison crisis, especially when building, equipping
and staffing one new prison can reach $100 million. To have any chance
of solving the problem, Alabama must find ways to substantially reduce
the number of people in prison.

That means making real progress on reducing the number of people
sentenced to prison, and by releasing many inmates who pose little
risk to society.

Despite a modest effort to enact changes - more talk about
alternatives to prison to reduce the inflow; early parole for
nonviolent offenders and sending inmates to private, out-of-state
prisons to reduce the inmate numbers - too little progress has been
made.

In Sunday's newspaper, News staff writer Carla Crowder reported on the
effort of one group, the Southern Center for Human Rights, to get the
state to release women inmates who it says are unlikely to commit new
crimes. The center says it used the records of women sentenced to long
terms to identify 250 who could be safely released. That's close to
the 252 women the state is paying a private prison in Louisiana to
house for $3 million a year.

What the center is proposing makes sense. But the state needs to get
serious about other steps to decrease overcrowding as well: sentencing
reforms, more use of community policing, drug and mental health
treatment and counseling.

Without those, the state won't have a chance to fix what ails prisons
- - even if it doubled the budget.
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MAP posted-by: Derek