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.
Prison reform, privacy bills awaiting governor
Though the Alabama Legislature has yet to send general fund or education budgets to Gov. Robert Bentley for signature, statewide prison reform and privacy bills are among the pieces of legislation awaiting the governor’s signature. Physicians practicing in Alabama will soon see changes in licensing and fee guidelines under two measures that passed out of the statehouse this week. Senate Bill 125 eases the process of licensing physicians in multiple states and Senate Bill 167 lowers the fees that physicians pay to provide pain management services. Sen. Rodger Smitherman’s Right of Publicity Act went to the Alabama governor this week. Senate Bill 197 establishes the right to exercise commercial control over a person’s likeness and attributes of their personal identity. Last week, the Legislature sent a comprehensive plan to reduce crowding in state prisons to Bentley for signature. The governor has yet to sign Senate Bill 67, which was championed by sponsor Sen. Cam Ward and members of the Prison Reform Task Force. However, according to Rep. Steve Clouse, those reforms would not be funded under the austere budget under consideration by House members.
Prison overhaul wins final passage, goes to Gov. Robert Bentley
The Legislature on Thursday gave final approval to sweeping changes to sentencing and probation standards in an effort to relieve severe overcrowding in state prisons. Alabama prisons house nearly twice the number of inmates they were originally designed to hold, a crowding level that has been called both dangerous and one that puts the state in danger of federal intervention. “Public safety is first and foremost. It always has been. The system we’ve got right now does not work,” said bill sponsor Sen. Cam Ward, an Alabaster Republican. The approved legislation seeks to gradually reduce crowding during the next five years by steering low-level offenders away from prison with the creation of a new Class D felony category and making changes to probation and supervision to try to reduce recidivism. “It is going to allow us to have real systemic reforms over a five- or six-year period. It won’t happen immediately, but your Legislature is finally doing something right in regards to prisons. If we do nothing, you can guarantee this: The federal government or federal officers will do it for us, and we should be ashamed as elected officials that we allowed that to happen,” Ward said. The House of Representatives passed the bill on a 100-5 vote. The state Senate voted 27-0 to go along with House changes. Go.v Robert Bentley said he plans to sign the bill after a legal review. “Today’s passage of SB 67 is a historic day for Alabama as we take a significant step forward to address reform of Alabama’s criminal justice system,” Bentley said. The House also approved a related bill to steer $60 million for the construction of 1,500 to 2,000 new prison beds. That bill now moves to the Alabama Senate. The two bills are designed to bring prison populations down to 137 percent capacity in the next five years, Ward said. That’s a crowding level that federal courts have found acceptable when crowding lawsuits have been brought in other states. The Alabama prison system was placed in federal receivership in the 1970’s which led to a court-ordered release of inmates. The state prison system has been in an unfavorable spotlight again in recent years over overcrowding, low staffing levels and violence. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating conditions at the state’s only prison for women after accusing the state of failing to protect inmates from sexual abuse and harassment. State inmates sued the state last year over medical care. Four inmates were killed during a 14-month period at St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville. The facility was placed on lock-down last month because of a riot. The legislation was the product of a prison reform task force and crafted in conjunction with the Council of State Governments. Senators applauded Ward after passage of the bill he had worked on for the past year, balancing agreements with prosecutors, victims’ advocates and others. The bill would also: Provide for hiring more than 100 new probation officers. Currently probate and parole officer have caseloads of 200 people each. The hiring would take caseloads down to less than 100 each. The bill comes at an estimated annual price of $23 million, with much of the cost increase coming from hiring additional probation officers, Ward said. Mandate that people who commit technical parole violations, such as failing to show up for a drug test, would get a three-day stint in jail. The legislation won praise from a group that often criticizes bills moving in the Alabama Legislature. “The passage of this legislation shows that Alabama acknowledges there is a serious over-incarceration problem in our prisons and that it is dedicated to fixing it,” Susan Watson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, said. The conservative-leaning Alabama Policy Institute also praised the passage. “The work isn’t over, but we have now taken a significant step towards solving a problem that has been decades in the making,” API Vice President Katherine Robertson said. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
This week at the Statehouse: Legislative Days 19-20
The talk of the town this week is expected to be about the gaming proposals Sen. Del Marsh drafted and sent home to members last week and the Poarch Creek Indian Tribe’s counter offer. Then there’s the lawsuit that the State Auditor Jim Zeigler has announced he’ll drop Monday to challenge Attorney General Luther Strange for his decision not to challenge school boards from using tax payer money to lobby for tax increases. Here are some of the proposals expected to move in the statehouse this week: Sen. Cam Ward’s comprehensive prison reform bill Senate Bill 67 could go to the House floor was early as Tuesday, according to reports from AL.Com. On Tuesday in the House Ways and Means Committee there will be four bills up. They include House Bill 572 which would raise the cigarette taxes from $.425 a pack to $.675 a pack, House Bill 267 which would raise the rental car tax from one-half percent to four percent and House Bill 590 which would authorize the state skipping the 2015-2016 longevity pay paid out at the beginning of December for state employees. On Wednesday, an education policy panel will hear comments on House Bill 243 to authorize local boards of education to admit or readmit students up to age 21 into the 12th grade. That same panel is expected to vote on Erin’s Law House Bill 197, a proposal to provide age-appropriate instruction in public schools on recognizing and avoiding child sexual abuse. The health committee is slated to vote on a trio of proposals governing abortion on Wednesday. The committee declined to vote last week following public hearings on the Fetal Heartbeat Act, the Healthcare Rights of Conscience Act, and a proposal to bar clinics within 2,000 feet of a public school. Keep checking ALToday.com for updates. *Article updated to reflect tax bills heard on Tuesday not Wednesday.
