Overcrowding and an inadequate sewer system are plaguing Limestone Correctional Facility.

Richard Allen, a Decatur native appointed this year as commissioner of the Department of Corrections, concedes a plan to add 300 inmates at the facility is going to further frustrate those problems.

The prison uses lagoons to handle about 200,000 gallons of sewage daily.

The state built Limestone's facility to hold 2,388 inmates, including those infected with HIV.

"This will increase crowding and put a strain on the sewage system," Allen said during a Monday editorial board meeting at THE DAILY.

So why do it?

Allen said the department hasn't gotten adequate funding for capital expenditures, so the alternatives to building more prisons are to create more space at current facilities or contract with other agencies to house inmates elsewhere.

The department will spend about $700,000 to convert a warehouse at Limestone into a dorm-type cell where 300 inmates will sleep. Allen said the project is in the design stage, and it will be spring 2007 before the warehouse renovation is complete.

Allen said the department plans to ditch the lagoon sewer method and contract with a sewer system to provide that service.

The department has taken bids from Limestone County Water and Sewer Authority and sewer systems in Huntsville and Madison County, he said.

There had been talk of Huntsville annexing the prison to make it a customer, but that has not occurred.

Greg Holland, assistant manager of the Limestone authority, said the authority is "waiting to see" who will get the bid.

To address overcrowding, Allen said, the department is focusing on recruiting and is looking at avenues such as community corrections to lower the number of inmates entering state prisons.

Allen didn't know how many more employees the department would add at Limestone to cover the 300 additional inmates.

He did tell the Rotary Club of Decatur during a speech that statewide the department is short 400 corrections officers according to what the state authorizes. Realistically, he said, the shortage is closer to 1,400.

The ratio of corrections officers to inmates on average is 1 officer per 10 inmates. With officers being off for sick leave, National Guard duty and vacation time, the gap widens.

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