A new Southern Legislative Conference report shows that Alabama officials have a long way to go before putting a lock on the state's prison troubles. The SLC says Alabama still has prisons bursting at the seams, spends too little on corrections and doesn't provide nearly enough guards.

To his credit, Gov. Bob Riley accelerated parole hearings for nonviolent offenders, and that program -- controversial though it is -- has somewhat eased the situation and emptied prison beds that can be better used for violent criminals. But it hasn't been enough.

With prisons built to hold 12,388 inmates, Alabama doesn't have enough space for the 26,496 people it incarcerates. Moreover, Alabama doesn't spend enough to adequately house and guard its prisoners.
 
The state's per-prisoner expenditure is $9,516 -- nearly half the regional average of $18,522. It's the lowest per-prisoner spending on corrections among surrounding Southern states, which in part leads to the state not fielding enough guards.

The state's prisoner-guard ratio is 9.9 prisoners per guard -- nearly twice the regional average ratio of 5.5 inmates. This understaffing is dangerous.

Moreover, Alabama's unreasonable sentencing laws send too many people to prison and are partly to blame for the state's bloated prison population. Alabama has the fifth highest incarceration rate in the nation, locking up 584 people out of every 100,000.

About 70 percent of Alabama's prisoners are incarcerated for nonviolent drug crimes and low-impact property offenses. Many are serving life sentences for three felony convictions, regardless of the severity of the crimes.

Indeed, Alabama is one of only a few states where conviction on a second-offense marijuana pos session results in prison time.

Granted, many police and prosecutors argue convincingly that

released nonviolent offenders sometimes commit violent crimes, leading to an increase in rape,

armed robbery and assaults. But many others don't go on to commit more serious crimes. Certainly, those who do deserve long prison terms.

But continuing to lock up nonviolent offenders as well as violent criminals will require Alabama to build more prisons, which is a costly proposition. To build enough prisons to house the overflow of prisoners facing the state would cost nearly $1 billion, and that doesn't include the additional millions to operate the prisons.

That's money the state doesn't have. Moreover, under current sentencing practices, new prisons would overflow before long.

A better plan would be smarter sentencing. The Alabama Sentencing Commission, after four years of study, recommended a greater reliance on community-based punishments for nonviolent offenders.

That makes sense, and the Legislature could ease the prison crunch by enacting the commission's recommendations.

Alabama's corrections officials agree. Corrections Commissioner Donal Campbell said early this year the long-term solution for Alabama's bloated prison population must include reformed sentencing laws to keep nonviolent offenders in community-based corrections programs.

An added plus: In community programs, nonviolent offenders work to pay for their incarceration and to repay their victims.

When it comes to solving its corrections problems, what Alabama needs is a two-pronged approach: more beds for violent criminals coupled with sentencing changes that put nonviolent criminals in community programs, not state prisons.