Dept. of Corrections Seeks to Improve Alabama’s Prisons

by WAKA Action 8 News

Alabama News Network’s cameras were allowed inside of the Kilby Correctional Facility in Montgomery Friday  afternoon. The Alabama Department of Corrections wants to make the public aware of the challenges they face in regards to overcrowding and a lack of funding.

The Kilby Correctional Facility was opened in 1969.  

Kilby is a receiving and classification center, meaning all of the state’s inmates have to come through this prison for medical and mental evaluation and classification before being dispatched to other prisons. 

Like most of Alabama’s prisons, Kilby is overcrowded. 

It was designed to house 440 inmates. It currently has a population of 1448. Worse, the prison is 51 correctional officers short.

The Department of Corrections is closely monitoring what’s going on at the state house. 

The legislature proposed a 5 percent cut to the department during the regular session, which would have cut 43 million dollars from the state’s prisons. Prison Commissioner Jeffery Dunn says even if they get level funding in this budget, the department of corrections will still take a hit.

“I think we go from here to continue to make our case to the legislature, fund the system so we can operate and do these kinds of things. I think there’s a very good case to be made that investment on the front end will pay great dividends and decrease the cost on the back end. Just the recidivism alone, I think you run the numbers, proves that point.”

The two top convictions that send people to prison in Alabama..are drug possession and drug trafficking.     

Tune into Alabama News Network Monday evening at 10 for this complete story.