ACLU of Alabama outlines how to cut the state’s prison population in half
Out of the 2+ million people who are behind bars in this country, about 90 percent are held in local jails and state prisons, which is why the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alabama has released a new report outlining how Alabama in particular can cut incarceration rates in half. Currently, 28,296 people are locked up in Alabama prisons, says the ACLU of Alabama. According to the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC), state facilities are are at 160 percent of their intended occupancy — the most overcrowded system in the country — as they’re collectively designed to hold only only 13,000 prisoners. The ACLU of Alabama says prosecutors, judges, the state’s parole board and state lawmakers have the ability to change these stats if they pursue reforms like changing drug sentencing laws and sentencing enhancement laws, reducing sentencing ranges, and addressing its juvenile justice system. The new report is a part of the ACLU’s Smart Justice 50-State Blueprints project, a comprehensive, state-by-state analysis of how states can transform their criminal justice system and cut incarceration in half. In the coming weeks, the ACLU of Alabama will convene briefings with advocates and policymakers to share the findings of the Blueprint and discuss strategies on how to move the criminal justice reform agenda further forward. “If Alabama were to follow these and other reforms in this Smart Justice 50-State Blueprint, 12,511 fewer people would be in prison in Alabama by 2025, saving nearly $470 million that could be invested in schools, services, and other resources that would strengthen communities,” reads the report’s website. According to the report, Alabama can dramatically reduce its prison population by implementing just a few sensible reforms: Reducing the amount of time people spend in prison by reforming harsh drug laws by amending the criminal code Doing away with direct and discretionary transfers of juveniles to adult court. Increasing the value threshold that defines whether a property offense is a misdemeanor or a felony. Eliminating or significantly scaling back mandatory minimum sentences. Repealing Alabama’s Habitual Felony Offender Act, which is one of the most punitive habitual offender laws in the country. Releasing aging people in prison who pose no threat to public safety. Looking back 2015, more than 70 percent of people in Alabama county jails had not been convicted of a crime and were still awaiting trial. According to the ACLU of Alabama, “practices like this that are funneling more people into prison and having them stay there for longer and longer periods of time is creating a strain on Alabama’s budget.” In fact, in 2016, Alabama spent nearly half a billion dollars of its general fund on corrections, which represents an increase of 126 percent since 1985, a figure that far outpaces growth in spending on higher education. “Alabama voters, advocates, policymakers, and prosecutors have a crucial choice to make: continue our over-reliance on incarceration that is stifling our state and hurting our communities, or move forward by building a new, more compassionate, more humane systems of accountability that puts people before prisons,” said Randall Marshall, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama.
Alabama has 5th highest incarceration rate in the world
If the United States were divided up into 50 independent nations, Alabama’s rate of incarceration would be the fifth-highest of any country across the globe. That’s according to the Prison Policy Initiative‘s (PPI) newly released The States of Incarceration report, which looks at states as if they were independent countries by per-capita rate of incarceration. According to the PPI, “the U.S. incarcerates 693 people for every 100,000 residents, more than any other country. In fact, [the U.S.] rate of incarceration is more than five times higher than most of the countries in the world. Although [the U.S.] level of crime is comparable to that of other stable, internally secure, industrialized nations, the U.S. has an incarceration rate that far exceeds every other country.” Here’s a look at the top 22 states with the highest incarceration rates, which all rank above the U.S. as a whole. No other countries are listed, because when it comes to incarceration rates per 100,000 people, more than half of these United States rank above all nations with at least a half million people in total population. The findings show states from the Deep South lock up more of their residents than the rest of the country. Louisiana incarcerates 1,143 people per 100,000 state residents, Georgia’s imprisonment rate is 1,004 per 100,000 state residents, and Alabama’s rate of incarceration of 987 people locked up for every 100,000 inhabitants. With a prison system designed only to house 14,000, Alabama’s prisons are severely overcrowded — over 190 percent over capacity — despite the fact the state’s incarceration rate continues to climb. On May 23, 2011, the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Plata upheld a court order requiring California to release up to 46,000 prisoners to relieve serious overcrowding in the state’s prisons and remedy grossly inadequate medical and mental health care. Alabama is hoping to avoid a similar fate. That is why Gov. Robert Bentley has made it one of his missions to reform and improve the Alabama prison system with a plan that would “reduce overcrowding and improve safety conditions for inmates and corrections officers, allow for additional inmate re-entry programs and to improve operational practices and procedures for the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC).”
Governor signs prison reform into law
In a ceremony at the state Capitol on Thursday, Gov. Robert Bentley signed into law a long-awaited plan to reform Alabama prisons. Senate Bill 67 passed the Legislature this month by a vote of 100-5 in the House of Representatives and by unanimous vote in the Senate. The governor said the “overhaul” of the prison system under SB 67 was the result of a yearlong study of corrections policy by lawmakers and practitioners. “This is a historic day,” Bentley said. “This legislation changes community supervision to reduce the number of people returning to incarceration, … diverts low-level property and drug offenders away from prison, and it requires supervision for anyone leaving prison. Senate Bill 67 makes the parole process more clear and efficient while observing the board’s discretion. And finally, it expands electronic notification to inform victims of all prison releases.” According to documents provided by the governor’s office, SB 67 is projected to reduce Alabama’s prison population by 30 percent — or 4,243 people — by 2021. The governor credited the reforms in the bill to the work of the Prison Reform Task Force and a comprehensive study of the state’s criminal justice system to reduce prison crowding and increase public safety. Sen. Cam Ward, who chairs the task force, said that the bill represented a “rare” coalition of support for reform. “When we started the session there was a 10 percent chance of this bill passing,” Ward said. “Any time you can have groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, ACLU, Alabama Policy Institute, and Republicans working on the same page together, that tells you we have the capacity as a state to work together to solve problems.” Ward also addressed concerns that the sweeping reforms outlined in the plan could be in jeopardy because of the stripped-down general fund budget recently passed by House lawmakers. “I know that’s been a big question,” he said. “I assure you, the funding will be there to get these reforms under way.” The bill is scheduled to take effect on Jan.30.
