Skip to content

sentencing reform

Legislature

House passes bill to give some prisoners an opportunity for resentencing

The cases would go back to the trial judge, not the Pardons and Paroles Board.
February 10, 2021

Alabama Department of Corrections “disappointed” by “surprise” DOJ report on excessive force

The Alabama Department of Corrections on Friday responded to a scathing report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice detailing correctional officers’ violence against incarcerated men in state prisons, saying the department was “disappointed in the surprise manner” in which the DOJ released the report.  The DOJ’s report details numerous instances of unprovoked and … Continued
July 24, 2020

DA defends imprisonment of disabled vet for marijuana charges

West Alabama District Attorney Andy Hamlin defended the court decision to revoke Sean Worsley’s probation, sending the Black disabled veteran to state prison for 60 months on felony marijuana charges. Hamlin spoke to APR in a phone interview about the case. Sean Worsley is a Black disabled veteran who was arrested on felony marijuana charges … Continued
July 17, 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

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

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

Sentencing reform needed, advocates say, but state official says it won’t come easy or cheap

Montgomery– Alabama’s prisons are overcrowded, violent and the living conditions horrid, but the fixes aren’t going to come easy, according to the director of the state’s Sentencing Commission, speaking to the Governor’s Study Group on Criminal Justice Policy on Thursday. Alabama’s prison system is under threat of federal takeover if the state doesn’t remedy the … Continued
October 4, 2019