By Bob Johnson 
The Associated Press
March 12, 2003
 

A bill aimed at helping Alabama prisons comply with two different court orders moved closer to final passage Tuesday.

The bill to give the Department of Corrections $4.55 million in emergency funding passed the Alabama Senate on Tuesday, while an almost identical bill was approved by the House Government Finance and Appropriations Committee.

The bill originally was for $3.67 million and would have been used mostly to reduce the number of inmates at Tutwiler Prison for Women from 1,000 to 750 to comply with a federal court order.

But the bill considered Tuesday in the Senate and the House bill also included money to expand community corrections programs and to add additional beds at prisons to comply with a state judge's order to reduce the number of state inmates in county jails.

"We are trying to solve various problems involving the Department of Corrections," state finance director Drayton Nabers told members of the House committee.

The bill calls for $2.7 million to come from the state General Fund, mostly to be used to transfer new women prisoners to private prisons in Louisiana. The remaining $1.8 million would come from the proceeds from the recent sale of prison land in Atmore.

Some members of the House committee expressed concerns about sending Alabama prisoners to another state.

"Sending them out of state should be the last ditch solution," said Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, chairman of the committee.

Prison Commissioner Donal Campbell said he has committed to a federal judge that he will reduce the inmate population at Tutwiler, and there are no other emergency options.

"We will certainly exhaust all capacity we have in the state, which is none," Campbell said.

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