Seeks legislation on crowding, drug treatment, sentencing

The Birmingham News
Carla Crowder
November 12, 2005

 
Gov. Bob Riley said Friday he intends to dedicate the first two weeks of the Legislature to a package of prison and sentencing reforms based on recommendation from his Prison Crowding Task Force.

The group's report focuses on alternatives to incarceration, including more community corrections and transition centers for prisoners. It also calls for improved information systems, better prison drug treatment and adoption of a package of changes that the Alabama Sentencing Commission has been pushing since last year.

"We don't have an option to not do this. We're going to have to do it," the governor said.

The 11-member group Riley appointed issued its final report Oct. 27 after months of testimony from agencies affected by prison crowding, as well as experts outside Alabama and in the private sector.

Riley considered calling a special session on prisons, but instead talked with key lawmakers to gauge support for the task force package. Over the next two months, his staff will be hammering out bills to be introduced at the session that begins Jan. 10.

"I think we can implement most of the recommendations. There are some in there that some of the members are going to have questions about, and we'll have some debate about, but we're trying to put together a package that we can implement no later than the first couple weeks of January," Riley said.

Alabama prisons remain at about double capacity. A special parole board created by Riley in 2003 reversed years of rising prison population and released thousands of nonviolent offenders. Those paroles have slowed, and new admissions have pushed the prison population to about 27,000, from a low of 26,220 last October.

Experts say that, without sentencing changes and diversion of low-risk offenders from prison beds, the numbers will continue to creep up.

"It is not a radical approach. It's one that's been followed around the country. Alabama is in a minority in not having moved further forward in community corrections," said Birmingham lawyer Bill Clark, a task force member.

"I don't think any of the recommendations, if implemented, would in any way threaten the security of the people of Alabama. They would reduce the costs of incarceration dramatically and help make room for the rehabilitation that needs to happen inside prison," Clark said.

An eye-opening day for members was their visit to Donaldson Correctional Facility, where they found a drug rehabilitation class that apparently consisted of inmates playing chess, said task force Chairman Michael Stephens, former executive director of the Lakeshore Rehabilitation Hospital and founder of the rehab corporation ReLife. Stephens brought experiences from his background in physical rehabilitation to his opinions about prisoners.

Drug use pervasive

The task force found that drug use was so pervasive in prisons, it's the wrong place for inmates who want to stop using.

"Instead of just putting them in this environment where their drug habit gets worse, their criminal record gets worse, they should be treated in a different environment," he said.

Also, prison drug counselors do not have to be certified, something the task force said should change.

He also supports use of a private prison being built in Perry County by Louisiana-based LCS Corrections. That space could allow the state to close an old prison.

"I'm not looking to increase beds, nor do I think we need to increase beds. I think we need to have alternative corrections programs, but I think we need replacement beds," Stephens said.

In general, community corrections allow offenders to live near their homes, and they provide rehabilitation classes and monitoring. Some also allow people to work, which helps convicts pay off fines.

The task force wants the state to expand these options, add more transitional centers for parolees coming out of prison, and add technical violator centers, which would temporarily house parolees who break the rules of parole but don't commit new crimes. Currently, many of those people return to prison.

"We understand that we've got a fundamental problem in corrections. That's the bad news," Riley said. "The good news is we also know there are common-sense solutions to fix most of those problems."

Task force member Lynda Flynt, who's also executive director of the Alabama Sentencing Commission, said she's encouraged by the governor's willingness to champion the changes.

Over the last two sessions, the Legislature has failed to pass the commission's sentencing standards, which would help bring truth-in-sentencing to the state and open up prison space for violent offenders.

"Alabama doesn't embrace change very well, but hopefully with the backing of the governor and key legislators things will change," Flynt said.

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