STATE PRISONS AND LAWSUITS

Conditions at Alabama prisons are ripe for another, potentially
costly federal lawsuit, the governor's task force on prison
overcrowding was told last week. Prisons are overcrowded, dilapidated
and understaffed, says the legal director of a group that has sued
the prison system in the past and won.

But a lawsuit is not what should worry task force members the most.
What's more worrisome is that there is no easy or cheap answer to
even begin fixing the very serious problems that ail prisons. As
daunting as the task is, those problems must be fixed.

Alabama's prisons hold twice the number of inmates - 27,732 - they
were built to house. We're guarding them with about half the number
of corrections officers we need. The prisons themselves are badly in
need of repairs. And there is no money in the state budget to fix
those problems (including the cost of defending the prison system
from more lawsuits).

What is a poor state to do?

Alabama already has tried all the quick fixes - squeezing in as many
inmates as possible in already overcrowded prisons; leaving prisoners
in county jails for long months; speeding up paroles of nonviolent
convicts; sending inmates to private, out-of-state prisons, etc. At
this point, there are really only two options left: making changes to
reduce the prison population or launching a massive prison-building program.

Neither option is cheap. But in a state that can't even afford to
hire adequate state troopers to patrol our highways, several new
prisons are a dream.

Earlier this year, state prison Commissioner Donal Campbell asked
that the prison system's annual budget be more than doubled to $580
million, with most of the increase going to build two new prisons.

Even if there were money for new prisons, two more prisons wouldn't
solve today's crowding problem, let alone deal with the rapid growth
in the prison population. Just over the past year, for example, the
number of prisoners has risen by about 1,300 inmates - enough to fill
one prison.

If we can't afford to build our way out of this prison mess, we'd
better put more effort into keeping people out of prison. Scant tax
resources are best spent on alternatives to prison, such as drug
treatment, alternative sentencing and community corrections programs
that force some offenders who don't pose safety threats to pay for
their crimes without putting an even bigger burden on crowded prisons.

A whole package of sentencing reform bills that would help make
sentences more uniform and fair has been given to the Legislature.
Unfortunately, the bills died in this year's legislative session
after the Senate got bogged down in a filibuster.

Next year, lawmakers must make passing those bills and funding
alternatives to prison a top priority - or say how they're going to
find $300 million for new prisons.