Steve Marshall: Sergeant Nick Risner and the costliness of “reform”
With the death of Sergeant Nick Risner this weekend, our state has lost ten law enforcement officers in ten months and twenty-four officers in five years. Sergeant Nick Risner was killed by a man whose name isn’t worth mentioning. That man had killed before—in fact, he killed his own father. In 2013, the man was sentenced to ten years in prison for manslaughter. A mere two-and-a-half years after entering prison, he was given the benefit of a parole hearing. His parole was denied. While in prison, the man racked up a lengthy rap sheet. Records indicate that he got into a fight and seriously injured another inmate. He was disciplined for disobeying a correctional officer. He got caught with drugs in his possession, twice. Naturally, the man was awarded “good time,” provided for in statute, for this stellar behavior while incarcerated. As a result, the man served three years, two months, and fifteen days of his ten-year sentence. He was released from prison in May of 2016. Had he served the full length of his sentence, he would have been in prison, not in the Walmart parking lot, last Friday afternoon when Sergeant Risner was shot. When the news of Sergeant Risner hit the wires over the weekend, politician after politician tweeted their support for law enforcement and their sympathy for the victims. But only days before, at the end of a five-day legislative session, a new law was enacted mandating that all inmates—including violent ones with histories just like this shooter’s—be let out of prison up to one year early to be “supervised” before the formal end of their sentence. Twenty-three House members and only six senators thought this was a bad idea. Had this law been in effect when Sergeant Risner’s killer was initially sentenced, his ten-year sentence would have been reduced to a little over three years with automatic “good time,” and his paltry three years behind bars would’ve been further reduced to only two. Consider too that just six months ago, the legislature enacted yet another law that would reduce time served in prison under the “Education Incentive Time Act.” As introduced and passed unanimously by the Alabama Senate, rapists and murderers were to be considered for parole up to twelve months early for taking advantage of educational programming while in prison. Despite being publicly chided by a Republican member of the legislature for getting involved, my Office successfully fought to have most violent offenders removed from this legislation. Each time, the same tired rhetoric is used as justification for passage: our prisons are “overcrowded,” and the inmates “are eventually going to get out anyway.” The current population of Alabama’s prisons is 81 percent violent. The population that is non-violent does not serve any appreciable time inside the prison walls. As evidenced by the “reforms” pushed last week, we are at a point where any further “reforms” will benefit primarily violent offenders—there is simply nobody else to “reform.” I’m glad we’ve all agreed that we need to build prisons, but strangely, I seem to be alone in the view that most of our current prison population ought to stay locked up. The policymaking in this state is completely and utterly detached from what law enforcement and prosecutors see day in and day out. There must be a reckoning for the real-life consequences of these decisions. It is time that the Alabama public speak up and speak out about this dangerous and seemingly endless trajectory of “criminal justice reform.” Your state leaders are not listening. Steve Marshall is the 48th Attorney General of the State of Alabama.
Department of Corrections seeks money to hire more officers
Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn asked lawmakers for a $42 million funding increase.
Kay Ivey unveils proposal to build new prisons
Saying Alabama needs a solution to its ongoing prison crisis, Gov. Kay Ivey is seeking bids to build three large new prisons. Ivey made the announcement during a Tuesday news conference. Ivey said Alabama has a “major problem” with prison conditions and overcrowding, and must have a solution. She said the prison system is seeking proposals from contractors. Ivey said the administration will then decide how to proceed. Options include borrowing money to build them or leasing them from private companies. Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said two prisons would house about 3,000 male inmates each and another would be a specialty facility for inmates with medical and mental health needs. The administration estimated construction would cost about $900 million, but Dunn said they think consolidation savings would cover the cost. Republished with permission from the Associated Press
Judge: Alabama has been ‘indifferent’ to isolated inmates
A federal judge said Monday that Alabama has been “deliberately indifferent” about monitoring the mental health of state inmates placed in the isolation of segregation cells. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued the ruling days after attorneys for inmates said the suicide rate in state prisons has reached a crisis level. “The court finds that the (Alabama prison system’s) failure to provide adequate periodic mental-health assessments of prisoners in segregation creates a substantial risk of serious harm for those prisoners,” Thompson wrote in the 66-page order. Thompson wrote that prison officials have been “deliberately indifferent with regard to their failure to provide adequate periodic evaluations of mental health to prisoners in segregation.” Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Horton said the department is reviewing the decision. Thompson in 2017 wrote that mental health care in state prisons was “horrendously inadequate” and violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. In his Monday order, Thompson said the failure to adequately monitor inmates in segregation contributes to the unconstitutional conditions. Thompson directed the prison system and attorneys for inmates to confer on how to proceed. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which is representing inmates in the ongoing class-action lawsuit over prison mental health care, praised the decision. “It has been evident for years that ADOC has failed to identify, monitor, and properly care for people who have serious mental illnesses and who develop them in ADOC custody. That systematic failure has led to needless suffering, especially for people in segregation,” said Maria Morris, senior supervising attorney at the SPLC. The advocacy organization said Friday that there have been 13 suicides in 14 months. “People are killing themselves in our prisons because conditions are horrendous,” Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen said at a news conference with the families of inmates. The prison system said in a response Friday that it was working to address the issue, and said the suicide spike “calls into question the long-term effectiveness of the suicide prevention measures proposed by the SPLC” during the litigation. Republished with permission from the Associated Press
Supreme Court: Execution of Muslim inmate can proceed
he U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected claims from a Muslim inmate who said his religious rights were being violated, clearing the way for the lethal injection to go forward Thursday night. In a 5-4 decision, justices vacated a stay issued by a lower court that had been blocking the execution of Dominique Ray, 42. Ray argued Alabama’s execution procedure favors Christian inmates because a Christian chaplain employed by the prison typically remains in the execution chamber during a lethal injection, but the state would not let his imam be present. Justice Elena Kagan wrote in a dissent that the dissenting justice considered the decision to let the execution go forward “profoundly wrong.” Attorneys for the state said Ray had ample opportunity to visit with his imam before his scheduled execution, that only prison employees are allowed in the chamber for security reasons, and that the imam can visit him before he’s led to the execution chamber and witness the execution from an adjoining room. Prison system spokesman Bob Horton said Ray was visited by his imam both Wednesday and Thursday and that Ray again renewed a request to have the adviser present — the request that has been denied. Other states generally allow spiritual advisers to accompany condemned inmates up to the execution chamber but not into it, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which studies capital punishment in the United States. Durham said did not know of any other state where the execution protocol calls for a Christian chaplain to be present in the execution chamber. Ray was sentenced to death for the slaying of 15-year-old Tiffany Harville. The girl disappeared from her Selma home in July 1995, and her decomposing body was found in a cotton field a month later. Ray was convicted in 1999 after another man, Marcus Owden, confessed to his role in the crime and implicated Ray. Owden told police that they had picked the girl up for a night out on the town and then raped her. Owden said that Ray cut the girl’s throat. Owden pleaded guilty to murder, testified against Ray and is serving a life sentence without parole. A jury recommended the death penalty for Ray by an 11-1 vote. Ray’s attorneys had also asked in legal filings to stay the execution on other grounds. Lawyers say it was not disclosed to the defense team that records from a state psychiatric facility suggested Owden suffered from schizophrenia and delusions. The Supreme Court also rejected that claim Thursday. Republished with permission from the Associated Press
Appeals court blocks Alabama execution of Muslim inmate
A federal appeals court on Wednesday blocked the planned execution of an Alabama inmate to consider whether the state was violating the Muslim inmate’s rights by not allowing an imam to replace a Christian prison chaplain in the death chamber. Alabama may be violating the religious rights of a Muslim inmate set for execution Thursday by refusing to allow an imam present at his death, a federal court said Wednesday in blocking the lethal injection. The 11th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay for Dominique Ray, 42, a day before his scheduled execution for the slaying of a teenager more than two decades ago. The state is still pushing for the execution to take place Thursday, though, and swiftly changed its execution protocol in response to the judges’ concerns. The Alabama attorney general’s office on Wednesday afternoon asked the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate the stay. Ray objected to Alabama’s practice of allowing a Christian prison chaplain, who is a prison system employee, to stand near the inmate during the lethal injection and to pray with the inmate if the inmate requests that. Ray asked to bring in his imam to stand near him during the procedure, but was told he could not because only prison employees were allowed in the execution chamber. A three-judge panel of judges wrote that it was “exceedingly loath to substitute our judgment on prison procedures.” But, they added that it “looks substantially likely to us that Alabama has run afoul of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.” “The central constitutional problem here is that the state has regularly placed a Christian cleric in the execution room to minister to the needs of Christian inmates, but has refused to provide the same benefit to a devout Muslim and all other non-Christians,” the three-judge panel wrote. The Alabama chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said it supported Ray’s bid to have an Islamic leader present. “We welcome this decision and hope Mr. Ray will ultimately be provided equal access to spiritual guidance,” Ali Massoud, government affairs coordinator for CAIR-Alabama, said in a statement. In the request to vacate the stay, the Alabama attorney general’s office said as a result of the 11th Circuit order, the state has amended its lethal injection protocol so that the chaplain will no longer be present. State attorneys said inmates can have their spiritual adviser witness the execution from a room adjoining the execution chamber. Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which studies capital punishment in the U.S., said other states generally allow spiritual or religious advisers to accompany the inmate up to the execution chamber but not into it. Instead the adviser can view the execution, as do others, from a designated area. He did not know of any other states where the execution protocol calls for a Christian chaplain to be present in the execution chamber. Ray was convicted in the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old Tiffany Harville. Harville disappeared from her Selma home in July 1995. Her decomposing body was found in a field a month later. Ray was convicted in 1999 after co-defendant Marcus Owden told police that they had picked the girl up for a night out on the town and then raped her. Owden said that Ray cut the girl’s throat. Owden pleaded guilty to murder, testified against Ray and is serving a life sentence without parole. Ray’s legal team on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution on other grounds. They argued it was not disclosed to the defense team that records from a state psychiatric facility suggested Owden suffered from schizophrenia and delusions. Attorneys asked the Supreme Court to halt the execution to examine whether the state had a duty to find and produce the information. Republished with permission from the Associated Press
Alabama’s prison system back on trial this week
Alabama’s prison system is back on trial this week. The trial marks the latest stage in a lawsuit the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program filed in 2014 against the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) to end the poor conditions in the state prison system, including the understaffing of both correctional and mental health workers. According to the SPLC, the state has yet to come up with an acceptable remedy to address the “horrendously inadequate” and unconstitutional mental health care and staffing needs of the ADOC. The SPLC will argue just that in its closing arguments scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 24 at 3 p.m. They follow weeks of testimony outlining ADOC’s plans to increase mental health and correctional officer staffing, raise personnel pay, and enhance outreach to potential new hires. Alabama legislators have requested $80 million over the next year and a half to address the issues plaguing the ADOC. But according to the SPLC, that amount does not address the current shortfalls, nor does it take into consideration decades of inadequate funding. “As Gov. Kay Ivey and ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn have both recognized, the constitutional violations of how the state treats prisoners developed over a generation. It will be difficult, and likely costly, to fix them. But ADOC has to fix them,” said Maria Morris, senior supervising attorney for the SPLC, and lead litigator in the case. “ADOC needs to be fast, creative and aggressive in figuring out how to come into compliance with the Constitution,” Morris added. “The recent budget request for ADOC covers little more than the expected increase in the system’s health care costs, and does nothing to address correctional staff shortages or the unconstitutional level of care.” Responding to the federal lawsuit in June 2017, the U.S. District Court issued a 302-page ruling declaring that Alabama’s prison system has failed to provide mental health care to the state’s prison population and is in violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. “Given the severity and urgency of the need for mental-health care explained in this opinion, the proposed relief must be both immediate and long term,”U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson wrote in his decision. State officials denied providing inadequate mental health treatment, but the judge cited evidence to the contrary from inmates and prison officials. One inmate killed himself days after testifying, prompting the state to agree to new suicide prevention methods while the trial continued. The judge acknowledged that the department blames lack of funding, but said money alone couldn’t make up for such poor treatment, and sweeping change is required. Alabama’s state prison system houses nearly twice the inmates it was designed for. Prison officers and inmates have been killed and injured in a series of violent crimes behind bars.
Five issues to watch Alabama lawmakers tackle in 2018
Alabama lawmakers began the 2018 legislative session on Tuesday. Throughout the 30-day session, they’ll endeavor to tackle a hefty list of policy changes on topics ranging from prison reform to opioid treatment — if they can focus on the issues plaguing the state and past their own reelections. Here are five top issues lawmakers will be faced with in 2018: 1. Drug addiction and the opioid epidemic Hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their lives in recent years due to drug abuse, and the problem only seems to be getting worse. In 2016, more than two million Americans had an addiction to prescription or illicit opioids. In Alabama, a total of 736 people died in 2015 from drug overdoses. Of those, a total of 282 – 38 percent – were caused by opioids, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation review of CDC data. The Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council, formed by Gov. Kay Ivey, is working on recommendations to present to the state Legislature for strategies to reduce the number of deaths and other effects caused by opioid misuse in Alabama. 2. The federal order to tackle prison reform In June, a federal judge declared the mental health care system in Alabama prisons to be “horrendously inadequate” – an unconstitutional failure that has resulted in a “skyrocketing suicide rate” among prisoners. In an order, U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson directed state officials to reform the system and address overcrowding. The Alabama Department of Corrections is seeking a $30 million supplement to its budget this year and a $50 million increase for next year — an additional $80 million over the next two years — to increase the number of corrections officers, potentially up to 1,000, and pay for an expanded medical and mental health care for prisoners. 3. Children’s health insurance Congress has failed to reauthorize funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), better known as ALL Kids in Alabama, which provides subsidized health insurance for children in low-income families. For the past two years, the state has fully paid for the program through federal funds, if Congress decides not to fund it in 2018, Yellowhammer State legislators would need to appropriate a whopping $53 million in state funds to keep the program afloat. Ozark-Republican and House Ways and Means Chairman Steve Clouse has gone on record saying that if the state has to pick up even a fraction of the cost of program, it will cast a “shadow” over the entire budget. 4. Pay raises for state employees In her State of the State address, Gov. Ivey proposed pay raises for both teachers and state employees. While she did not specify how much of an increase she’d propose, but budget numbers released earlier Tuesday suggest a 2 to 3 percent increase. State employees have not received a cost-of-living increase since 2009, but lawmakers have shied away from a pay raise in recent years due to the perennial budget shortfall in the state General Fund. 5. Juvenile justice reform Alabama’s juvenile justice system may soon see some improvements following a comprehensive review by a group of legislators, judges, law enforcement officials and others. The inter-branch, bipartisan Juvenile Justice Task Force released a set of policy recommendations to Ivey and other state leaders last month that are expected to form the foundation for statutory and budgetary changes that will be considered in the legislative session. The recommendations are intended to decrease crime, lower costs for taxpayers, and create better outcomes for Alabama’s youth and families. Juvenile justice reform is one of Ivey’s top priorities.
Alabama lawmakers begin 2018 legislative session
Alabama’s thirty day lawmaking session began Tuesday. State legislators have a some tough budgetary issues to tackle this legislative session, including prison reform and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, before they adjourn to hit the campaign trail ahead of the June primaries. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey will give her first State of the State address on Tuesday night. During her address to a Joint Session of the Alabama Legislature, Ivey will discuss her legislative priorities for the year, which includes a proposal for a pay raise for teachers and state employees.
Cam Ward and Matt Fridy: A positive note in prison debate
The news surrounding the Alabama corrections system seems to be one negative story after another with much of the focus on the need for reform and consolidation in the system as well as higher quality of service and better outcomes. Much of this is true and is a result of inadequate funding, not because of poor leadership or management. In fact, we would argue that ADOC has some of the best leadership under Commissioner Jeff Dunn and his team that we have had in some time. They are tackling the bigger problems and looking for ways to solve them in the face of many challenges. However, not everything at ADOC is bad news, in fact there is one diamond among the rough that Dunn and his team have recognized as an example of how corrections could be run with the appropriate funding and dedication to positive outcomes for those leaving the system and returning to their local communities. The Alabama Therapeutic Education Facility in Columbiana, Ala. will have been open for ten years this coming March and have worked with almost 7,000 ADOC inmates who participated in an innovative six month rehabilitation program at the facility. The program is a partnership between the GEO Group as well as ADOC and the Alabama Department of Post Secondary Education. Here the participants come from DOC facilities all over the state and enter into a six month evidence based program of drug rehabilitation, education and an opportunity for a vocational degree in five different trades and crafts via our community college system. We have toured the ATEF and it is in fact a model of what we as legislators would like to see across the state of Alabama. Why? What are the results from almost ten years at this unique medium security facility? According to the Alabama Department of Corrections this past July, over those ten years, the ATEF has an average recidivism rate of 15%. To put that into context, the state of Alabama’s recidivism rate is 35% (per ADOC) and the national average is 76%. In fact, a U.S. Bureau of Justice study stated that within five years of release, 76% of inmates leaving state facilities are rearrested. The challenge we have in Alabama and will continue to have, is adequate funding for proven programs such as ATEF. However, with a commitment from the Ivey Administration, the ADOC, ALDPSE and the legislature, the teaching and the treatment and the vocational degrees for participants going back to their local communities can continue and will at ATEF. Alabama should be looking for ways to fully utilize ATEF and expand this model with proven results into other areas of our state’s corrections system. Simply put, the results speak for themselves and if we dedicate funding to expanding a program with a 15% recidivism rate, numerous lives will be improved and the state will see the benefits for decades to come. ••• Cam Ward is a Republican member of the Alabama Senate. He has represented District 14 since 2010. Matt Fridy is a Republican member of the Alabama House. He has represented District 73 since 2014.
State House resumes talks on prison construction bill
Lawmakers in the Alabama House have resumed work on the state’s stalled prison construction bill. House Speaker Mac McCutcheon confirmed Thursday House members are tweaking the bill that passed the Senate in March with a plan that would also replace the Tutwiler Prison for Women. The new plan would also lease new men’s prisons built by local communities. With the legislative session nearing an end on May 22, McCutcheon said prison construction is a priority and the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the bill on Tuesday. Newly minted Gov. Kay Ivey supports the construction legislation, which was first proposed by her predecessor former Gov. Robert Bentley as a solution to prison over-crowding across the state. As of September, Alabama prisons were at 175 percent of their intended occupancy — housing roughly 23,000 prisoners in facilities designed for 13,000. In October, the U.S. Justice Department opened a statewide investigation into violence, rape, overcrowding, among other problems and conditions in Alabama’s prisons for men.
Alabama Senate approves plan to build up to three new prisons
The Alabama Senate on Thursday approved a state prison construction plan, taking significant steps to solve the long-standing crisis in Alabama’s prisons. After nearly three hours of debate, Senators voted 23-11 for Senate Bill 302, which authorizes a $350 million state bond issue to build one new prison and renovate others. Gov. Robert Bentley, a strong advocate for prison reform, calls the vote a “step in the right direction” even though it differs from his original proposal of $800 million. “Today Alabama took a step in the right direction to solve a decades old problem facing the Alabama Department of Corrections,” said Bentley in a news release. “I commend the Alabama Senate for their work on the passage of the Prison Transformation Initiative.” He continued, “I understand this bill is a work in progress and my ultimate goal remains the same, and that is to have safe and modern facilities that solve the persistent overcrowding of our prisons that will protect our law enforcement officers and inmates, as well prepare the inmates to successfully transition back into our communities. If we are to truly transform the person, we must first transform the system. As this legislation moves to the House, I look forward to working with House members to pass the Alabama Prison Transformation Initiative.” Currently, Alabama’s prisons house far more inmates than originally intended, with the prisons at over 170% of capacity. The proposal passed Thursday, sponsored by Alabaster-Republican state Senator Cam Ward authorizes the Department of Corrections to enter lease agreements with counties to finance and construct the facilities, and establishes clear criteria for how Corrections will award the lease agreements. As the second-largest expenditure in the state’s General Fund, the budget for all non-education state spending, the prison system is a significant and persistent fiscal strain on the state. For the current fiscal year, Corrections alone costs the state $496 million and consumes 22% of the General Fund budget. “The state prison system is close to exploding the state budget,” said Ward. “We have numerous prisons that were built before the Vietnam War and some pre-date World War Two. The upkeep alone for these facilities is a bleeding hole in our budgets.” “This plan will dramatically increase safety for our inmates and our correctional officers,” Ward added. “There have been too many instances over the past year of officers being assaulted and, in some cases, killed. The dormitory-style of housing at some of our prisons is particularly dangerous. Modern, cell-block facilities with high-tech cameras and better lines-of-sight will save lives.” Senate Bill 302 now moves to the Alabama House of Representatives for consideration.
