Prison Reform Continues Alongside Construction Plans
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The governor’s plan to build four new state of the art prisons continues to move forward, passing in the senate Tuesday night. It’s not all about construction though.
Lawmakers are working on another plan to continue reforms started last year. Prisons in Alabama are severely overcrowded. Just a few years ago, the state was on the verge of a federal takeover.
Lawmakers are doing what it takes to make sure that doesn’t happen with new reforms. One of the new changes makes sure local officials aren’t overwhelmed by state facilities.
“The counties and sheriff’s had some concerns that there may be an opportunity that the state was going to push a lot of inmates into an overcrowded facility they have at the local level. All we do is clarify that the state cannot force an inmate to go to an overcrowded jail or overcrowded community corrections program,” said Sen. Cam Ward.
The governor is touring state facilities outlining his plan to build new state of the art prisons and shutting down others. Senator Cam Ward says it’s important to for lawmakers to work with the governor to come up with one plan to solve the state’s ongoing problem.
“Those need to move together because you can’t have construction without reform and you can’t have reform without construction. They both go hand in hand. We have some outdated facilities that need to be desperately improved if not increasing capacity if nothing else than to replace aging facilities that we have,” said Ward.
While these plans are moving forward, this is definitely not the finish line.
Lawmakers are still looking at just what impact last year’s reforms are having on the system.
“I think it’s going to take years. As I said when we passed the first big bill last year, you’re looking at a 3-4 year process. As I’ve said before, it took a long time to get into this hole, it’s going to take a long time to get out of it for our state. But I think working with law enforcement, working with county commissioners, working with district attorneys all of which were involved in the bill we adopted today, we’re going to continue moving forward but it’s a work in progress,” said Ward.
