Stacy George warns that understaffed prisons pose a threat to public safety
Stacy George is a former Morgan County Commissioner. George, a published author, has twice run for the Republican nomination for Governor of Alabama (2014 and 2022). However, for the last 13 and a half years, George has worked as a corrections officer for the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) – until yesterday. George is just the latest ADOC officer who, overwhelmed by the hours, personal risks, and conditions of the state’s prisons, has left government service. George told Alabama Today on Thursday that he is frustrated by the “inhumane” conditions and is planning a new book exposing the problems at ADOC titled: At what point does punishment become revenge? George takes pride that the fact that in his time in ADOC service, he never had to use force on an inmate. “I have never had to spray an inmate, and I have never had to use a baton on one,” George said. “I usually don’t even carry a baton.” George said that the prisons are so understaffed that he fears that the inmates could potentially take control of one or more of the overcrowded facilities. “At any time, they can take a prison,” George warned. “It is a danger to the officers, the people that work there. The public is in danger.” George charged that often there are only 8 guards on duty at night (and sometimes as few as six) at an ADOC facility that holds 2,300. “There is no telling what they would do to the women in there if they took control,” George said, referring to the women officers that ADOC has hired to work in the prisons. George said that he has been tasked with taking the inmates to the showers even though the facilities are chronically understaffed. “That’s a job for three officers, and I have had to do it by myself,” George said. “When one has to go to the hospital, that is a job for three officers, and I have had to do that by myself. If he gets by me, he is loose in the hospital, and their guards aren’t even armed. I am thinking, what if I have to go to the bathroom while we are there?” “They told me I cannot even provide them with soap,” George continued. “When are we going to get some soap?” George said that he has had to frequently serve as the only guard on an entire cell block – normally a job for three guards and that there have even been shifts where they did not have a guard for each area, so in some of the dorms, the prisoners “just had to police themselves.” U.S. Judge Myron Thompson has ordered ADOC to hire 2,000 more guards – a mission that the troubled system has failed to do despite three years of trying. George said that ADOC depends on its officers working overtime to keep the facilities guarded. “When I go in there, I bring my lunch and my dinner because I don’t know when I am coming out. It could be ten hours, 12 hours, or 16 hours,” George said. “I am going to go to my grandson’s birthday party. I have not seen him for a year, I am going to be able to go to my Church, where they only see me about once a month.” The U.S. Department of Justice has accused ADOC of running the most dangerous prison system in the country and has sued the state claiming that a sentence to an Alabama prison constitutes a “cruel and unusual punishment” and is thus an unconstitutional violation of the Eighth Amendment. “How we treat them is shameful,” George said. “There are only two nurses for 2,300 inmates.” George said that in his tenure at ADOC, he has had to deal with between 50 and 100 stabbings of inmates. “It’s way over 50 – it could be a hundred,” George said. “One time, we came in, and there were blood trails all over the place. It took us four hours to find all the (stabbed) prisoners because there we were so short-staffed.” George said that inmates attempting, or threatening suicide, is a frequent occurrence. “The inmate said he was going to kill himself, and he cut himself with a razor blade,” George said. George then called for help, and the supervisor on the other end of the line asked, “How bad is he bleeding? Do you think he is trying to kill himself, and I said yes.” The inmate did not die. “There are prisoners down on the ground flopping in diabetic comas, and you don’t know whether it is that or a drug overdose,” George said. George said that he was involved in an accident a year ago, and since then, walking up and down the stairs inside the facility has become difficult for him. ADOC knew of his difficulty but did not give him any accommodations, ultimately leading to his resignation. “They have called and offered me two jobs since then,” George said of ADOC. George said that he is holding a press conference in front of the Department of Corrections headquarters in Montgomery on Friday. “I am going to blow the doors off of this system,” George said. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Amendment 7 would loosen rules on bonds to promote local economic and industrial development
Alabama’s Amendment 7 deals with bonds to promote local economic and industrial development. The Local Economic and Industrial Development Bonds and Financing Amendment is an amendment to the 1901 Constitution of the State of Alabama and will be on the ballot on Tuesday. A “yes” vote supports changing the requirements for counties and municipalities to provide for financing economic and industrial development through the use of public funds, issuing bonds, and leasing property or lending bonds to a private entity, including exempting local governments from seeking voter approval for issuing bonds unless the bond issue includes a repayment provision such as a tax increase. It would also extend these powers to all local governments, and not just those that already have bond-making authority. A “no” vote would block these changes to how counties and municipalities provide for financing economic and industrial development projects. Under current law, Alabama counties and municipalities are authorized to lend or grant public funds or things of value to an individual, public entity, or private entity “for the purpose of promoting the economic and industrial development of the county or the municipality.” Amendment 7 would significantly loosen the rules that local governments have to follow. Amendment 7 would remove the requirement that the newspaper publication be among the largest circulating newspapers, and instead allow the publication to be made in any newspaper in the jurisdiction. The amendment would also ratify all actions and agreements by counties and municipalities made under Amendment 772 unless they are subject to pending lawsuits. Under current law, local governments are required to receive voter approval in order to be able to issue bonds. A “yes” vote for Amendment 7 would end that constitutional requirement unless the bond issue also had a repayment provision, such as a tax increase. The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Jeff Sorrells. The House unanimously approved the bill on March 17, 2022. The Senate then ratified it unanimously on April 6. Amendment 7 will appear on the ballot as: “Proposing an amendment to revise Amendment 772 to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, to specify that all counties and municipalities may exercise the authority and powers granted by Amendment 772 to provide for economic and industrial development; to permit notice for Amendment 772 projects to be published in any newspaper in circulation in the county or municipality; and to ratify all actions and agreements of any county or municipality done under Amendment 772 unless subject to pending judicial proceedings on the date of adoption of this amendment. (Proposed by Act 2022-286).” There are ten statewide amendments on the November 8 ballot for voters to ratify or reject. The Legislature is also asking voters to ratify their recompiled version of the Alabama Constitution. Voters also will select the state’s new leaders. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Attorneys Roy Moore and John Eidsmoe express concerns about proposed constitutional changes
The voters of Alabama will go to the polls on Tuesday to vote to elect new leaders for federal, state, judicial, and local office. Perhaps more importantly, the voters are being asked to approve major changes to the Alabama Constitution of 1901. The state legislature is asking voters to approve a recompiled constitution as well as ten proposed constitutional amendments to the state constitution. Alabama Today spoke on Thursday with former Chief Justice Roy Moore and law professor and retired Colonel John Eidsmoe about the proposed changes to the state’s foundational legal document. Moore and Eidsmoe said that they are strongly opposed to both Amendments 2 and 7. Amendment 2 would amend the constitution so that local governments are able to legally “give a thing of value” to private entities or corporations in order to expand broadband services. Amendment 7 makes it easier for local governments to sell bonds to finance economic and industrial development. As part of that, it removes the requirement that the people of the town or county get to vote on any proposed bond issue. “That is a not function of government,” Eidsmoe said of broadband expansion. “The government is picking winners and losers,” Moore said when one business gets an incentive, and another does not. Moore and Eidsmoe were asked if there was an amendment or two that they really liked and wanted to encourage voters to please go and vote to ratify. “Amendment three,” Eidsmoe answered. Amendment three requires a governor to notify the family of a victim before commuting a death sentence. In addition to the ten amendments on the ballot, the Legislature has recompiled the state constitution, shortening it, and grouping like topics together, while removing racist and archaic language from the document. Voters are being asked to ratify the legislature’s version of the recompiled constitution. “We are for removing the racist language (from the Constitution),” Eidsmoe said. “What we are not comfortable with is the process. I have gone through it, and I don’t find anything wrong with it.” “I am simply uncomfortable with the process,” Moore said. “They say that it is the longest constitution in the world, but that is because they (the Legislature) keep adding amendments to it. The problem is the Legislature.” Eidsmoe said that when the United States Constitution is amended, they don’t eliminate the original passages when it is amended, the original words remain, like the Alabama Constitution as it exists today. “It shows the history of the document,” Eidsmoe explained. Eidsmoe said that they had opposed a previous effort to strike the racist language because it also struck a provision stating that there is no right to a state-funded education for fears that liberals could use that equity funding issue to cost the taxpayers billions of dollars. “That seems to still be in there,” Eidsmoe said of the provision to protect the state from having to provide equitable education to every child in the state. Moore said that he felt that the legislature did “more than what was necessary.” He also expressed misgivings about the lack of openness and transparency in the process by which the Legislature change the Constitution, as well as concerns about the ramifications of wording changes. Eidsmoe and Moore also expressed their concerns about the proposed Amendment One – Anaiah’s Law. “I feel terrible about what happened to Anaiah Blanchard,” Moore said. “But that is not a reason to go and change the constitution.” Anaiah’s law would allow prosecutors to ask a judge for a hearing to deny bail to dangerous felons. Under current law, a judge can only deny bail in a capital offense or when the accused is considered to be a flight risk. Eidsmoe said that judges can already make bail prohibitively expensive. Moore said that it was the mistake of the trial judge that Anaiah Blanchard’s killer was let out on bond for kidnapping charges, but that he did not support changing the law because of that case. “Judges can already do that,” Moore insisted. “I know that everyone wants to get tough on crime, but there is a conservative case for justice reform,” Eidsmoe. “The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. It shouldn’t be that way.” Moore is the Founder and President Emeritus of the Foundation for Moral Law, while Eidsmoe is the Foundation’s lead attorney and resident scholar. “These are not the official positions of the Foundation, but rather our personal opinions,” Eidsmoe said. The polls open on Tuesday at 7:00 am and close at 7:00 pm. Voters can only vote at their assigned polling place and need to bring a valid photo ID to the polls with them in order to participate in Alabama elections. If a voter does not have a valid photo ID, they can get a free voter ID from their local board of registrars or by contacting the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Wes Allen visits all 67 counties
Republican nominee for Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen announced on Tuesday that he has accomplished the feat of having held campaign visits in all 67 counties. When Allen announced that he was running to become Alabama’s next Republican Secretary of State, he promised that he would campaign in all of Alabama’s 67 counties. Allen has now achieved that promise. “This is a big state,” Allen said. “I have traveled nearly 100,000 miles by car throughout this campaign, and I have now made my case on why I should be elected as Alabama’s next Secretary of State in each of Alabama’s 67 counties. Meeting voters in every county in the state was important to me, and it is important to the voters.” There is a tendency by many campaigns, given the population distribution of Alabama, to focus a campaign on the top ten counties in population, as 56.8% of Alabamians live in just ten counties. U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby and Secretary of State John Merrill have both emphasized visiting every county in the state every year. Republican nominee for Senate Katie Britt has also announced that she has visited every county in the state during this campaign. “I have visited every county, but I am not slowing down,” Allen promised. “I will campaign as hard as I possibly can until the polls close on November 8.” Wes Allen currently represents Pike and Dale Counties in the Alabama House of Representatives. Prior to that, he served as the Probate Judge of Pike County for nearly a decade. Allen is a native of Tuscaloosa County. He played football at the University of Alabama under Coaches Gene Stallings and Mike Dubose. Allen has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama and a master’s degree from Troy University. He and his wife, Cae, live in Troy with their two children. Sec. Merrill is term-limited from running for a third consecutive term as Secretary of State. The election for Secretary of State will be determined by the voters on Tuesday, November 8. Allen faces Democratic nominee Pamela Lafitte and Libertarian nominee Matt Shelby in his bid for Secretary of State. The Alabama Republican Party has held the office of Secretary of State since 2007. In addition to selecting new leaders, Alabama voters have to vote on whether or not to ratify the 2022 compilation of the Alabama Constitution of 1901. There are also ten statewide constitutional amendments on this year’s general election ballot. Polls open at 7:00 am and close at 7:00 pm. Voters must vote at their assigned polling place and bring a valid photo ID to the polls with them. If you do not have a valid photo ID, you can get a free voter ID from the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
