Skip to content

prison overcrowding

News / Legislature / State

Alabama pastors, faith leaders call on state to enact meaningful criminal justice reform

A group of Alabama pastors urged state lawmakers in a letter Wednesday to work on meaningful criminal justice reform to fix Alabama’s broken prison system and to help prevent young people from entering it.   Joining the 40 pastors who signed the letter was Craig DeRoche, senior vice president of advocacy and public policy with Prison … Continued
/
February 6, 2020

Violent crimes focus of Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles public information

The Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles since November sent messages in tweets and press releases about those convicted of violent crimes, and nearly nothing on non-violent offenders seeking paroles.  Since parole hearings resumed that month the tone of the Bureau’s social media posts changed from informational to something much closer to fear-mongering, full of … Continued
/
February 4, 2020

Ivey’s prison study group recommends spending, anti-recidivism efforts, goes light on sentencing reform

On Thursday the long-awaited policy recommendations of Gov Kay Ivey’s bi-partisan Study Group on Criminal Justice Policy were released, which include suggestions on spending, sentencing reform and recidivism reduction.  The group, formed in July and required to release its recommendations before the Legislative session begins Tuesday, didn’t always agree on every topic up for consideration, … Continued
/
January 31, 2020

Bureau of Pardons and Paroles increases hearings

After months of a reduction in parole hearings for Alabama’s incarcerated, the state Bureau of Pardons and Paroles is ramping up the numbers of those hearings.  In a response to ARP’s questions Monday about how those hearings are set, Bureau spokesman Terry Abbott said that the agency has a target goal of 540 hearings during … Continued
/
January 28, 2020

Chip Brown introduces bill to allow judge to deny bail to violent offenders

Wednesday, State Representative Chip Brown (R – Mobile) and Angela Harris, the mother of Auburn murder victim Aniah Blanchard, were in Montgomery urging legislators to support a proposed Alabama Constitutional amendment that allows prosecutors and judges broader discretion in requesting and denying bail to those accused of committing violent crimes. Section 16 of the 1901 … Continued
/
January 23, 2020

State not hiring nearly enough prison correctional officers to meet court order, according to court filing

In a court filing Friday an attorneys for plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Alabama Department of Corrections highlighted how few correctional officers the state has hired since a federal judge ordered at least 2,000 more be sent to work inside the state’s deadly, overcrowded prisons.  The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC), in a statement … Continued
/
January 7, 2020

County commissioners report: 2015 prison reform led to less prisoners in prison but more in county jails

Wednesday, the Executive Director of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama Sonny Brasfield told county commissioners that sentencing reform in 2015 has shifted more prisoners and the costs of those prisons from state prisons to county jails and county budgets. “I let you down,” Brasfield told the commissioners. In 2015, the state legislature passed … Continued
/
December 11, 2019