Following weeks of back and forth, the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee approved a revised prison construction plan on Thursday.
The plan — to authorize a $775 million issue to build three “super-prisons” and would renovate Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women — was approved by voice vote and now moves to the full Senate for consideration.
The original plan proposed by Gov. Robert Bentley was to authorize an $800 million bond issue to build four large regional prisons and close 14 existing prisons. In Bentley’s proposal, the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women would have also been replaced.
Alabaster-Republican state Sen. Cam Ward says the bill may be considered by the full Senate as early as next week.