MONTGOMERY - Alabama prisoners are beginning to back up in county jails again despite efforts to make room for them in state prisons.

One solution being explored is to pay counties to keep them there.
 
After months without a backlog, there now are 192 state inmates in county jails who should have been moved to state prisons, said Brian Corbett, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections. "It's beginning to rise again," Corbett said.

The state Department of Corrections once had 2,844 inmates languishing in county jails past the allowed 30 days. Through expedited paroles and contracts with private prisons, the state brought the backlog to zero and kept it there for about a year, Corbett said.

The numbers began to rise again this fall after paroles leveled off and the state brought back inmates who had been shipped out of state, he said.

Corbett noted the 192-inmate backlog is a fraction of what the problem once was.

Others suggested it will only grow.

"I think they are going to be caught in a wedge soon. They've paroled all they can parole," said Bobby Timmons, executive director of the Alabama Sheriffs Association. He said Gov. Bob Riley's administration has discussed the possibility of the state contracting with counties to keep state inmates.

"We're just right now in the talking stage," Timmons said.

Corbett said there were general conversations about the idea. "I don't think it's fair to call it negotiations, but it's an idea that must be explored."

Timmons sent a questionnaire to sheriffs asking whether counties were interested in such an arrangement and how many state inmates they could take.

Some counties need the potential revenue to help pay for new jail facilities and are interested, Timmons said. Others said heck no.

One of those who said no was Montgomery County Sheriff D.T. Marshall. "I sent it back as soon as I got it, with zero."

Marshall said he opposes any agreement to house state prisoners, partly because counties have worked so hard to force the state to address the backlog.

The Montgomery County jail was built for 305 inmates and had 501 Wednesday, including 16 state inmates. Before double bunks were added, Marshall said, so many inmates were sleeping on the floor it was hard to walk though the jail.

"A lot of people would say, `So what?' But the problem is, if something happens to one of them, it's going to cost the taxpayers," Marshall said.

St. Clair County Sheriff Terry Surles said his two jails, in Ashville and Pell City, probably could accept about 10 state inmates. He said he would expect the state to pay the county at least what it paid to house inmates in private prisons in other states.

"I just don't think we need to be housing them for any less than anybody else," Surles said. "I don't want to be stuck with them for $1.75 a day." That's how much the state now reimburses counties per inmate, Surles said.

Sonny Brasfield, assistant executive director of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama, said there are potential problems with liability, medical care and other issues, since jails are not set up to care for state inmates.

"It sounds easy, but it's not," he said.

Corbett said the state eventually needs to find a long-term solution to prison crowding, either by building prisons or paying someone to house inmates. The state's prison population grows by about 1,000 inmates each year, he said.

"Everyone wants to be tough on crime, but it's an expensive venture," he said.

 

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