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Birmingham News Carla Crowder May 12, 2006 Three months on the job, Alabama Corrections Commissioner Richard Allen is facing jail time himself unless he finds space in state prisons for 185 inmates by the end of the month. Montgomery County Circuit Judge William Shashy found Allen in contempt of court Thursday for the department's failure to comply with a long-standing order to remove state prisoners from county jails within 30 days. Shashy's order lays out strict deadlines for state prisons to clear all backlogged prisoners by Sept. 5. Currently, there are 585 backlogged prisoners. The finding marks the second time in five years that a state prison chief has been found in contempt of court after repeatedly breaking state law. Michael Haley was in the same spot in 2001. "It is clear that the Commissioner's actions and inactions and those of his predecessor in office violate (the Alabama Code) and constitute willful, continuing failure and refusal to comply," Shashy wrote. "This contempt is continuing to the present." Allen said in a written response, "Nothing would please me more than to be able to take all prisoners from the County jails the first day they become State prisoners. ... We are in the process, with the Governor's support, of executing a detailed and ambitious plan to solve our prison crowding problems, but the many and long-standing problems we face cannot be solved in a day, a month and perhaps in a year, although we will work hard." The latest round in the 15-year battle between sheriffs and state corrections officials heated up in November, when the number of backlogged state prisoners in jails rose to 840. Campbell resigned: A few months later, then-Commissioner Donal Campbell resigned, and Gov. Bob Riley tapped longtime Chief Deputy Attorney General Richard Allen to oversee the prison system. "While the present Commissioner attempted to reform the `business as usual' approach with in the Department, more must be done," Shashy's order states. Allen and Chief Deputy Commissioner Vernon Barnett attempted to lay out the state's long-term plan to deal with chronic prison crowding at a hearing before Shashy in April. Shashy's order shot down their arguments. Allen had asked the counties and the judge to give the state a year for their plan to achieve its goals. "Their response is a draconian order that appears to be beyond my present capabilities," Allen wrote. Bobby Timmons, executive director of the Sheriffs Association, said it appeared that Allen was "in the wrong place at the wrong time," and was not the real culprit. "He hasn't been there long enough to get a shot at it," Timmons said. But, he added, "The judge has really been put on the spot because it's been carried over and over and over again." Sheriffs from across the state have packed recent court hearings. They complain of the financial hardship borne by counties in having to feed and house prisoners who belong in state lockups. The state reimburses the counties $1.75 per inmate per day. Recent state audits and investigations have shown that sheriffs are able to feed prisoners for much less and pocket the difference. In Morgan County, for example, Sheriff Greg Bartlett kept for himself $104,000 in leftover food funds over two years. Legal, but uncommon: That is legal, though not common, Timmons said. More often excess inmates create a burden for sheriffs. Montgomery County Sheriff D.T. Marshall, for example, pays Lowndes and Wilcox counties $10 per inmate per day for his overflow. Shashy's reasoning centers on the last three years' large budget increases for the Corrections Department, coupled with slight dips in the prison population. "The DOC is housing over 1,500 fewer inmates than it did in February 2003, despite the fact that its budget increased by over $71 million during the same period," his order reads. "The DOC is doing less with more resources." He also chided the state for allowing 1,569 prison beds to remain empty during this crisis. Corrections officials say those beds are not a safe option. "As the Judge and the Plaintiffs know, the vast majority of empty beds within our prison system are in unfenced, unsecured Work Release facilities. The Judge appears to be coercing me to place dangerous criminals in unsecured facilities, and this I will not do," Allen said. Shashy's order further requires state prisons to accept 275 prisoners per week, and cautions, "when receiving these inmates, the Commissioner shall not cause any prisoner with a violent criminal history to be released unless otherwise required by law."
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