MONTGOMERY - Less than two years after the state began an early release program for nonviolent offenders to address prison overcrowding, state prisons are at nearly double capacity.

At a Department of Corrections budget hearing two weeks ago, Commissioner Donal Campbell told legislators that alternative sentencing and community programs could help.

In 2004, almost half of the state's inmates were in prison for nonviolent property and drug crimes, the Alabama Sentencing Commission annual report shows.

Campbell told of a prison system where kitchens operate 20 hours a day and plumbing, mechanical and electrical systems wear out early. Because of prison overcrowding, the state again has a backlog of prisoners in county jails.

He believes violent prisoners should be in maximum-security facilities, but many others could do well in less restrictive settings, at a lower cost.

Alabama established the state Sentencing Commission to look for ways to make the state system more efficient and effective. Executive Director Lynda Flynt said the commission endorses more community programs and uniform sentencing guidelines that give judges alternatives to prison.

"One thing we worked on is alternative community corrections programs," Flynt said. "Judges can divert prisoners to community programs using a 10-point scale to determine if someone is appropriate for such a program. They must have programs where they can send people."

Flynt said Alabama has 25 community corrections programs serving 34 of the 67 counties. Morgan County does not have a program, but is one of 13 counties that could get one if funding allowed.

"A lot of the judges would sentence people to community programs, if they were there," said Flynt. "They send them to prison because they have no other choices."

The Legislature passed the Community Corrections Act in 1991, but Flynt said it has never been fully funded. The 2006 Department of Corrections budget request includes $2.6 million in supplemental funding to put the program into full operation.

The governor's budget does not include funding for the increases, and the state General Fund shortfall makes the chance slim.

Flynt said in the past two years, Gov. Bob Riley increased funding for probation and more programs at the local level. Early probation efforts reduced prison numbers initially, but the state has released or paroled most appropriate inmates.

"There is no one answer to problems in the criminal justice system," Flynt said.

Program examples

Types of programs that could be used as alternatives to prison include house arrest; electronic monitoring; detention at night and work-release during the day; and "outside-the-walls sentencing."

A person on house arrest serves a sentence at home, perhaps wearing an electronic device that tracks where the person is with little or no travel away from the site. Outside-the-walls sentencing" includes treatment for substance abuse or mental illness.

Corrections Department spokesman Brian Corbett said that in 2004 Alabama had the country's fifth highest prison admission rate, and it spends the fewest dollars per inmate in the country. Among inmates, 20 percent were in for substance abuse offenses and 46 percent for nonviolent property and drug crimes.

A section from the Sentencing Commission's 2004 Annual Report sums up the challenge corrections policy makers in Alabama face: "If our leaders continue to espouse, and citizens continue to believe, the same unplanned 'get tough on crime' political rhetoric, adopting harsher sentencing laws for all crimes, they must be prepared to (1) release prisoners and/or (2) expend scarce resources on building many more prisons to house offenders who could be punished other ways."

"One problem in Alabama is that we have a very apathetic populace," Corbett said. "They don't see that sometimes there are better ways to deal with the problems."

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