ALABAMA GOVERNOR OFFERS PLAN TO EASE CROWDING IN THE JAILS

MONTGOMERY, Ala., June 14 - Gov. Donald Siegelman outlined a $6.8
million plan today to alleviate jail crowding by removing state
inmates and creating more prison cells within a year.

The proposal, which comes in response to a court order to improve
conditions in county jails, seeks to free up 2,866 prison beds for
violent offenders.

The plan calls for restarting work camps, diverting some drug
offenders to alternative programs, paroling more inmates and possibly
renting prison space in other states.

Governor Siegelman said that at least one prison to house up to 2,000
inmates might have to be built, but that would be five or six years
from now.

The governor outlined his plan two days after saying that the
Department of Corrections would not meet a court-imposed deadline on
Monday to accept all state inmates who had been in county jails
longer than 30 days.

On May 18, Judge William Shashy of Montgomery County Circuit Court
gave the state a month to remove nearly 2,000 state inmates from
crowded jails under the 1998 settlement of a 1992 lawsuit by county
sheriffs.

Judge Shashy scheduled a hearing for June 28, at which prison
officials could be held in contempt if he found they had violated the
order.

The Associated Press reported that the president of the Alabama
Sheriffs Association, Sheriff Herbie Johnson of Autauga County, said
the governor's plan did not appear to provide the immediate help that
some counties needed.