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overcrowded

Dramatic clouds behind barbed wire fence on a prison wall
Prisons

Alabama prisoners dying at a rate four times the national average

Fewer people died inside the prisons than in 2023, when prisoners were five times as likely to die as the national average.
January 23, 2025

It’s time for prison mental health reform

Two of the major items on Governor Kay Ivey’s 2020 agenda are finding solutions to the problem of Alabama’s overcrowded and broken prison system, and bolstering our mental healthcare system. Both are badly needed, and in some ways intersect. I understand the political challenge of getting folks excited about funding a major overhaul of something … Continued
February 24, 2020

Building new prisons is not the answer

Alabama should be building better schools, not better prisons. It’s as simple as that. And the truth is if we had done that from the beginning we probably wouldn’t have the overcrowded prisons we have today. It’s a statistical fact that if a child can’t read at a third-grade level by the time they graduate … Continued
December 6, 2019

Saving taxpayer dollars and creating a path to redemption

As multiple recent state and national news stories have illustrated, overcrowded state prisons is one of the key challenges facing Alabama. While the State Legislature has made significant strides over the past few years in the area of criminal justice reform, Alabama’s prisons are still at about 166 percent of capacity. This creates a dangerous … Continued
November 6, 2019

State’s hired gun stuns study group claiming prisons not overcrowded

A surprise declaration during the inaugural meeting of Gov. Kay Ivey’s Study Group on Criminal Justice Policy caught many attendees off guard when the attorney representing the state denied that state prisons are overcrowded. Prison overcrowding is well-documented by the Alabama Department of Corrections as well as the USDOJ investigations that threaten a prison takeover … Continued
July 24, 2019

Prison issues — front and center

Folks, taking care of prisoners is not a popular political issue. However, every so often Alabama politicians pragmatically have to acquiesce to the mandates of federal judges and grant our transgressing citizens their rights as determined by the courts. Federal Courts have determined that our felons deserve the rights to adequate imprisonment. You just cannot … Continued
May 1, 2019

Department of Corrections taps former federal prison official as new deputy commissioner

The Alabama Department of Corrections has chosen a new deputy commissioner. The department on Monday announced the appointment of a longtime federal prisons official, Charles Daniels, as the new deputy commissioner of operations. Daniels arrives at the Alabama Department of Corrections at a time of difficulty, as the department has been struggling with aging and overcrowded prisons … Continued
January 8, 2019