Alabama's top prison official faces time behind bars if he can't transfer all state inmates from county jails within four months, a Montgomery judge ruled Thursday.

Circuit Judge William Shashy ordered Department of Corrections Commissioner Richard Allen to decrease the prisoner number from 585 to 400 by May 31, to 200 by June 27 and to zero by Sept. 5. State law requires that an inmate be moved from jail to prison within 30 days.

A corrections spokesman put the number of inmates to be transferred at 574.

The order is the latest in a 15-year-old lawsuit filed against the department by the state's 67 counties and sheriffs.

If Allen doesn't meet each deadline, he risks being held in contempt of court and incarcerated until he transfers the prisoners, Shashy wrote.

"What if sheriffs refused... to house the very same inmates the DOC is refusing to house," Shashy wrote. "Criminals would be out on the streets... the criminal justice system in our state would collapse."

In a statement Thursday, Allen said he is working to transfer the inmates but criticized a directive by Shashy two weeks ago that the state use nearly 1,000 minimum-security beds to house medium-security prisoners.

"The judge appears to be coercing me to place dangerous criminals in unsecured facilities, and this I will not do," Allen wrote.

Allen, however, is re-evaluating hundreds of prisoners to see if they qualify for minimum-security detention or work release.

Autauga County Sheriff Herbie Johnson was pleased with the order, especially since the state has been slow to transfer its inmates from his jail. He said the threat of jail time should prompt Allen to follow the law.

"What would you do if you were standing before the judge and the hammer was fixing to drop on you?" Johnson said. "You'd find some more (prison) beds."

Back to News