If legislators come up with the money to erase a projected shortfall in state spending for prisons next year and then double that amount, the Department of Corrections might get what it needs in 2006 to renovate dilapidated buildings, replace worn-out vehicles and weapons, and hire a sufficient number of corrections officers. So says the head of the state's prison system.

Commissioner Donal Campbell presented legislative budget writers with a $578.3 million wish list for the Corrections Department on Thursday. The request included two new prisons -- $151 million -- and increased spending across the board, more than doubling the current year's appropriation.

While House and Senate budget writers did not scoff at the request, they made no bones about not being able to come up with the money.

"I can tell you up front that the money isn't here ... so we have to find other alternatives," said Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, chairman of the Government Finance and Appropriations Committee.

Roy Johnson, chancellor of the state's two-year college system, and Joe MaHoney, president of the Alabama Association of Community Corrections, offered their two-cents' worth regarding ways to battle prison overcrowding, including increased educational opportunities for convicts and a partnership with the Department of Education, which is looking at a budget surplus of $300 million.

"We've got to think outside the box to deal with a prison population that is not going down," said Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, chairman of the Senate General Fund finance committee. "Perhaps we can draw on federal dollars from Jim Walker's Homeland Security Department."

Campbell's 43-page presentation showed the dismal financial status of a department whose officers are using guns that are 20 years old and vehicles with more than 200,000 miles on them.

The presentation included photos of rusted pipes in a prison kitchen and the leaking roof of another facility's dining hall.

More immediately, the commissioner asked for $24 million to get DOC through the budget year that ends Sept. 30 -- money to pay for raises, medical contracts and lawsuit settlements.

Alabama's prisons are among the most overcrowded in the nation, with prisoner-to-guard ratios of more than 100 to 1 in some cases.

The state has attempted to address prison overcrowding by paroling 4,110 inmates since establishing a special parole hearing docket in April 2003, increasing the number of parole hearings significantly. But the second parole board is running out of nonviolent criminals to release.

DOC has submitted its 2006 budget request to Gov. Bob Riley. Riley spokesman John Matson said the governor has reached no final decision on how much money his budget proposal will contain for prisons.

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