A poor solution to overcrowding
We’re all aware of the overcrowding in the Randolph County Jail, as plenty has been written about it through the years. The lack of needed capacity and continuing maintenance problems has prompted the county commission to have a referendum in November on whether or not to impose a .5-percent (half-cent)countywide sales tax to construct a new jail.
The problem is no different at the state level, with outdated state prisons designed for 13,000 inmates now housing 24,000. Gov. Robert Bentley introduced a plan earlier this year to build four new large prisons and shut down some older facilities, claiming that a bond issue for the $800-million cost would be covered by savings from closing the older prisons. Some legislators question that figure and the governor’s plan, even while acknowledging something needs to be done.
One of the things that has been done is a 2015 prison reform bill that created a Class D felony for less serious crimes and allows state Pardons and Paroles to send these felons to community corrections programs as long as local governments consent. It also provides for sending parole violators to county jails for short periods of time and repeat violators to prison for up to 45 days at a time.
A bill is now before the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee that changes some language in the 2015 bill, including removing the consent requirement for local governments to accept state prisoners in their community corrections programs and increasing the number of times a repeat parole violator can be sent back for short-term prison stays before being kept there long-term to serve their entire original sentence.
County jails have long complained about having to house state prisoners that were sent to them due to state prison overcrowding. Now the Alabama Association of County Commissions and sheriffs throughout the state are objecting to the proposed changes in the prison reform bill as measures that will add to their own problems in dealing with jail inmates. Whenever parolees go back to prison, local deputies have to take them there. Allowing more parole-violation chances and short-term prison stays means more trips and added workload for sheriffs’ departments. Not being able to refuse more inmates in their local community corrections programs further adds to the strain.
It appears to be what we have seen over and over, year after year, from state government. When a problem can no longer be ignored, shift it to someone else and continue refusing to deal with it in a sustainable way.
We’re with the commissioners and sheriffs on this one.
