MONTGOMERY - Alabama already has more than 1,000 convicts in private prisons in Louisiana, but a report Wednesday said the state's prison population may swell to more than 30,000 by 2011.

Although the state's overall population is expected to increase by only 1.5 percent over the next four years, the report by the Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, D.C., projects that Alabama's prison population will jump by 7 percent from more than 28,000.

But state Prison Commissioner Richard Allen said if voluntary sentencing guidelines put into effect in Alabama has 28,241 inmates, about twice the capacity of its prisons.

Allen said the inmate population could be reduced by 3,000 within five years if the sentencing guidelines, which call for standardized sentencing statewide, are strictly followed.

"For this to be successful, district attorneys and judges must be enthusiastic about using them," he said. "But some are not using them at all."

Jefferson County supplies the most inmates to the state - roughly 16 percent - but District Attorney David Barber is not following the guidelines, Allen said, because "he doesn't think they're tough enough."

Barber said in an interview Wednesday that the new guidelines are structured to make sure Alabama's inmate population doesn't exceed the number of beds available.

"It's treating crime strictly from a money standpoint," Barber said. "It's like the tail wagging the dog. I'm not stonewalling anybody - just trying to slow down the avalanche."

Barber said he doesn't favor "warehousing" inmates, but he said there needs to be more prison rehabilitation programs "to get people straightened out."

He said 35 percent of the 6,000 felony cases his office prosecuted last year were drug cases, and 80 percent were drug-related.

"You can't force drug treatment on people when they're forced to walk the streets," he said. "We need more meaningful drug treatment in prison."

Madison County District Attorney Tim Morgan declined through a spokeswoman to comment on his policy.

Allen said he has traveled the state, lobbying prosecutors, judges and newspaper editorial boards to build support for enforcement of the sentencing guidelines.

"We're asking them (prosecutors and judges) to please give it a try," he said. "We've got to try something. We've got to preserve our jail space for our violent offenders."

Allen said 38 counties, including Madison, Limestone and Morgan, have community corrections programs, but he said those need to be expanded statewide.

During the next three years, Alabama plans to open community corrections programs for all 67 counties. Allen said those programs can defer as many as 300 inmates a month from prison.

Each month the counties ship about 700 inmates to state prisons, while on average about 581 are paroled, Allen said, adding, "That means I have 119 I have to do something with."

Allen also favors leniency for those who only "technically" violate their paroles by, for example, missing a meeting with a parole officer or failing to make a restitution payment. Instead of being returned to prison, Allen said they should be sent to a center for three or four months of intensive rehabilitation.

Prison system spokesman Brian Corbett said if not for a second parole board established by Gov. Bob Riley in 2003, the state prison population might have already exceeded 30,000.

Alabama is not alone in inmate growth - the Pew report said state and federal prison populations nationally will increase by more than 13 percent by 2011, triple the rate of U.S. population growth.

Other trends noted in the report:

Over the next five years, the average inmate more likely will be female or elderly.

Many states, including Alabama, are having a difficult time hiring and keeping guards.

Alabama had the highest ratio of inmates per staff (6.8) of any state.

Methamphetamine cases, especially in the South and Midwest, have significantly contributed to prison growth.

Alabama's incarceration rate has more than doubled over the past 20 years and nearly quadrupled over the past three decades.

The state imprisonment rate of 625 per 100,000 residents trails only No. 1 Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas nationally in the top five.