Groups Want Investigation into Alabama’s Plan to Use Pandemic Relief Money for Prisons

Nearly two dozen organizations have sent a letter asking the U.S. House Financial Services Committee to investigate Alabama’s plan to use $400 million in pandemic relief funds to build two super size prisons.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, The Sentencing Project and others signed on to a letter arguing that it is improper use of the relief dollars.

They asked Chairwoman Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California) to hold hearings on the matter.

The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Alabama over a prison system it said was riddled with prisoner-on-prisoner and guard-on-prisoner violence. The governor’s office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

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