By Tim Lockette
The Anniston Star
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A plan to borrow $800 million to build four new prisons to alleviate an overcrowding problem passed the Alabama Senate in a 23-11 vote Tuesday.
Supporters said the bill would give Alabama state-of-the art prisons that are better suited to training programs that can help inmates transition to life outside.
“If we can have these efficiencies and have a new prison system that focuses on vocational rehabilitation and training, that’s a win for this state,” said Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, a supporter of the bill.
Alabama has more than 32,000 inmates in some form of state custody, including more than 24,000 in state prisons built for about 13,000. Gov. Robert Bentley has attributed much of the recent violence in prisons — including riots at Holman Prison in Atmore and St. Clair County Correctional Facility in Springville this year — to overcrowding.
Bentley asked the Legislature for an $800 million bond issue to pay for the building of four new prisons to replace more than a dozen facilities now operated by the state. Three of those prisons would be men’s prisons, each built for about 4,000 inmates.
A fourth, smaller prison would replace Tutwiler Prison, the state’s only maximum security facility for women, which has been rocked in recent years by allegations of sexual abuse of inmates.
Proponents of the bill say new prisons would allow for better surveillance and security, and would make prisons a safe place to hold classes for inmates. Bentley has said the $800 million bond issue could be paid off with money saved by closing older prisons.
That funding plan has run into opposition from some of Bentley’s fellow Republicans, many of whom have also criticized Bentley’s proposed design-build approach to prison construction. Bentley’s staff say design-build would allow for quicker construction, but it would also sidestep the state’s typical bidding process.
Some Democrats opposed the bill on the Senate floor Tuesday, saying past efforts to reduce the prison population through sentencing and parole reform haven’t worked so far.
“We haven’t done much,” said Senate Minority Leader Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery. “We have an antiquated system of pardons and paroles.”
Alabama’s prisons are now filled to about 180 percent of their built capacity. Prison officials have said that the proposed prisons will likely be overcrowded from the start, at 125 percent of build capacity.
“They’ll be able to sleep on new floors instead of old floors,” said Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, a critic of the bill.
Senate leaders moved to limit debate on the bill to about 30 minutes, something that irked at least one Republican critic of the plan. Sen. Paul Sanford, R-Huntsville, said he was “a little disgusted with the supermajority” for moving an $800 million bond issue to a vote with less than a half-hour of debate.
Marsh said the bill had been debated at length in recent weeks, including an earlier debate on the Senate floor that didn’t lead to a vote.
The bill moves to the House for a vote.
Copyright 2016 The Anniston Star