BILL BARROW
Capital Bureau
January 7, 2004

MONTGOMERY -- More than 1,400 male inmates who had been moved to Mississippi should return to Alabama prison facilities in the next three months, prison Commissioner Donal Campbell told a legislative panel Tuesday.

But Campbell told members of the Legislature's Joint Prison Committee that the system remains shackled with dilapidated prisons, several overcrowded barracks, overworked staffers and a cash-starved budget. In addition, the system continues to grapple with state and federal lawsuits over prison conditions and about 275 female inmates remain housed in Louisiana because there is no room for them in Alabama.

It was a familiar refrain for the second-year commissioner, and it may not be changing anytime soon, according to state officials, who say most tax increase proposals will face long odds when the Legislature convenes next month.

"This whole thing is a powder keg and could lead to increased problems at the state's prisons, Rep. Blaine Galliher, D-Gadsden, said after listening to Campbell's presentation.

After the meeting, Campbell struck a more cautious tone: Prisons are dangerous. Prisons are high-risk, but we have good corrections officers -- we just don't have enough.

Yet he warned that there would be few improvements in his future reports without a significant increase to the Department of Corrections' $250 million state appropriation. Campbell said the budget request he submitted to Gov. Bob Riley called for a $94 million increase, but he added that won't begin to fix all of our problems.

Under questioning from lawmakers, Campbell said he had not discussed his budget request with the governor. Corrections was one of the few state agencies to get a budget increase from fiscal year 2003 to fiscal year 2004. Riley is expected in early February to unveil his proposed budget for fiscal year 2005, which begins Oct. 1.

The Legislature convenes Feb. 3.

The department's budget dilemma is similar to other state agencies -- Medicaid, Public Health and Public Safety, among others -- paid of the $1.2 billion General Fund budget. Administration officials have said the state would need hundreds of millions of dollars more to continue existing services

"We can't help you on the money, Sen. Jack Biddle, R- Gardendale and prison panel chairman, told Campbell.

Alabama houses nearly 28,000 inmates in its state corrections system. Existing facilities were designed for about 13,000. State spending per inmate ranks 50th among the nation's states.

Prison conditions have led to a number of lawsuits, including four ongoing cases Campbell discussed Tuesday.

The commissioner said the state has complied with a federal court order to reduce the number of inmates at the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka. But the population has not dropped enough to transfer the inmates moved to Louisiana back to Tutwiler.

Another overcrowding case filed by county sheriffs seeking removal of state inmates from county jails now sits before the Alabama Supreme Court, which will decide if the state must pay more than $2 million in fines for not removing the prisoners. The state has already paid $175,000 in attorneys' fees.

In a mental health-related case filed in 1992, Campbell said, the state is complying with a settlement agreement to improve the care of mentally ill inmates. The department has spent about $4.25 million in improvements at Bullock Correctional Facility and Donaldson Correctional Facility to comply with the agree ment.

The most recently filed case, pushed by HIV-positive inmates who allege mistreatment and shoddy medical care, has resulted in a number of changes, Campbell said. About 240 HIV-positive inmates are held in either two-man or single-cell units at Limestone Correctional Facility. The system has also voided the contract with its former health care provider, NaphCare, and now uses Prison Health Systems Inc. In coming weeks, the inmates will have access to vocational programs, Campbell said. The case remains in mediation.

Lawmakers also heard Tuesday from officials at the recently expanded Board of Pardons and Paroles. The agency has completed its first month of a double docket aimed at the early release of about 5,000 prisoners over the next year. The expedited hearings include only nonviolent offenders eligible for parole.

The hearings in December did bring the inmate population below 28,000. But Campbell said it is not clear whether the expanded board will result in a net reduction of the prison population, since the system must still take in newly convicted prisoners, those awaiting transfers from county jails, and, eventually, the women moved from Tutwiler.

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