FELONS HURT BY VOTE VETO, JACKSON SAYS

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, leader of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, has joined
other civil rights activists in opposing Gov. Bob Riley's veto of a bill
that would restore voting rights to convicted felons once they've paid
their debt to society.

Jackson, Southern Christian Leadership Conference state president Sen.
Charles Steele, D-Tuscaloosa, and other prison reform advocates criticized
the governor's decision during a news conference Thursday on the grounds of
Staten Prison in Elmore County. Jackson also called for a congressional
investigation of prisons in Alabama and every state in the country.

"Once people have paid their time, their citizenship rights should be
restored," Jackson said.

Riley's decision to sign a voter identification bill that would require
picture identification when voting and not to sign the voter restoration
bill drew harsh criticism from black legislators who assumed the two bills
would pass together. Members of the Legislative Black Caucus have planned a
march at the Capitol to protest on July 18.

In addition, the state chapter of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People is calling for a national economic boycott of
the state.

"We're not going to take anything less than (Riley) supporting the ex-felon
bill," said Steele. "It was an agreement that the governor did not live up to."

Jackson plans to join the march next week.

Other pressing issues the state must address, Jackson said, include the
disproportionate number of minorities in jails, privatization, prison
sentencing and how work contracts in prisons are determined as well as
prison overcrowding.

David Azbell, Riley's press secretary, said the state is working to address
the overcrowding situation.

"Just this week, we sent male inmates to a prison in Mississippi and have
already sent female inmates to a similar facility in Louisiana in order to
reduce overcrowding," he said.

As for Jackson's comments about the prison system's shortcomings, Azbell
said the civil rights leader is welcomed to help.

"If Jesse Jackson is willing to donate a few million dollars from the
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition coffers to the state so we can build, staff and
maintain a new prison in Alabama, we will happily accept his offer," he
said. "Otherwise, with the state's meager resources and current fiscal
crisis, we have no other choice than to continue housing inmates in
out-of-state facilities."

Jackson planned to tour the prison Thursday, but neither he nor the media
were allowed access because the tour had not been cleared by prison
officials, said prison warden Willie Thomas.

On top of that, he said, prison inmates were on lock down, several
correctional officers were undergoing on-site testing and not enough staff
was available to provide adequate security for such a tour.

"I don't have the bodies to do it," Thomas said. "It was very short notice.
The commissioner has to approve it, not me."

Thomas said prison overcrowding is an issue the prison plans to address as
soon as possible. The current facility was originally designed to hold 508
inmates, he said, and there are about 1,300 inmates at the site. Two other
buildings -- one an addition, the other a renovated canning plant -- are
currently being used to accommodate the overflow.

Local radio talk show personality Roberta Franklin, who has openly
criticized the state's prison system, also attended the conference.

She said along with overcrowding problems, she's concerned with the lack of
state aid that former inmates receive in making the transition back into
society once they are out of prison. Convicted felons are given $10 when
they leave prison, she said.

"Where are you going to go with $10?" she asked. "I'm not saying that
voting is not important, but the No. 1 thing on their mind is not going to
be, 'I'm going to go out and vote today,' but, 'Where am I going to stay?'"

Michael Blain, director of the Prisoner's Justice Network for the
Washington-based Justice Policy Institute, said other states are opting to
release nonviolent offenders and Alabama should consider it.

Michigan has repealed its mandatory minimum sentencing law and released
between 6,000 and 7,000 non-violent offenders, Blain said.

"The governor of Illinois released almost 5,000 non-violent offenders," he
said. "In the state of Alabama, 84 percent of the people incarcerated are
locked up for nonviolent offenses."

Jackson said the state also must concentrate on rehabilitation and should
allow nonviolent offenders to be released on certain conditions.

"Those nonviolent offenders should be in drug rehabilitation (programs) for
the most part or in job training," he said. "It'll be cheaper to have them
out of jail, monitored."

Failing to re-evaluate the criminal justice system will perpetuate problems
in addressing the plight of Alabama's inmates, he said.

"They leave here sicker, slicker and come back quicker," he said.