STATE PRISONS CHIEF SEEKS $94M BUDGET HIKE

Panel Grills Campbell On Overcrowding, HIV Treatment For Inmates

MONTGOMERY - Prisons Commissioner Donal Campbell has asked Gov. Bob
Riley for a $94 million budget increase next year, and even that
amount won't fix all of the state's corrections problems, he told
lawmakers Tuesday.

The department, which received $250 million from the state in its 2004
budget, is under numerous court orders to improve conditions for prisoners.

Efforts to settle at least one of those cases - a court order to
remove state prisoners from county lockups - have led to new
overcrowding and dangerous conditions for guards and inmates,
according to documents given to lawmakers.

The Legislature's Joint Prison Committee met Tuesday to hear from
Campbell and other agencies working with state inmates.

Campbell was peppered with questions about such things as managing
prison populations and the treatment of HIV-infected prisoners at
Limestone Correctional Facility near Capshaw.

Corrections was one of a handful of agencies to receive additional
money in this year's budget to address long-standing concerns; its
budget was increased 7 percent, from just under $234 million in 2003
to $250 million for fiscal 2004.

Although Campbell said his proposed budget request of $344 million is
$94 million more than the prison system received this year, it is
unlikely the department will see that much of an increase next year.
The state's general fund budget next year faces a $300 million
shortage, according to Finance Department estimates.

Corrections, in conjunction with the early release of thousands of
prisoners being coordinated by the Board of Pardons and Paroles, has
made some gains. But each example of progress has presented
Corrections another set of problems.

The population of the Julia Tutwiler prison in Wetumpka, the state's
only institution for women, remains below 750 inmates as a court order
requires..

But Campbell told lawmakers that he doesn't yet have a plan to return
275 female inmates to Alabama from a private prison in Louisiana.

The state will within the next 60 to 90 days bring 1,422 male
prisoners back from Mississippi, Campbell said. Those prisoners,
however, often can't be sent to work-release centers, which are
populated by nonviolent offenders who are part of the state's early
release docket.

Also, the state is complying with a court order to remove its
prisoners from county jails within 30 days of their conviction.

But compliance with that order has caused additional strain at state
prisons. According to a report provided to legislators, accepting the
prisoners has "seriously overcrowded facilities" and affected food,
laundry and wastewater services at several prisons.

At least two prisons, Donaldson in Bessemer and St. Clair in
Springville, are in violation of their environmental permits regarding
sewage and waste discharge.

It has also cost the state a significant, but undisclosed, amount in
overtime costs, according to the report Campbell gave lawmakers.

Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, grilled Campbell on how HIV-infected
inmates are treated. Rogers said he was concerned that the state
wasn't doing enough to protect against inmates infecting one another,
or to prevent released inmates infected with HIV from spreading the
disease to people on the outside.

Campbell and State Health Officer Don Williamson told lawmakers that
the state was doing everything it is required to do to protect inmates
and the public from HIV-infected prisoners.

Prisoners infected with HIV, a precursor to AIDS, are housed at
Limestone Correctional Facility, segregated from the rest of the
population. In an effort to comply with a court order, Campbell said,
the state has moved most inmates infected with HIV from dormitory
housing and put them two to a cell, with health services located
nearby. Williamson told lawmakers that he knows of "no confirmed
evidence of HIV being contracted in prisons."

That did little to comfort Rogers, who said that young black women now
represent the fastest-growing segment of new AIDS cases. He said the
cause, demonstrated in national studies, is that men returning home
from prison are passing the disease on.

While some law changes could be made, Williamson said the difficulty
with controlling prisoners infected with HIV is that many refuse to
take a free 30-day supply of medicine when they are released. "Once
they are released, they are like any other free-world individual,"
Williamson said.

As lawmakers wrestled with Campbell over inmate care and proposals to
create transition or treatment centers to help addicted inmates, he
repeatedly told them that many of their issues come down to money.

"There's not adequate funding to close out the current year," he said.
"I don't know what to do if we don't have money to operate the
department."

At one point, chairman Sen. Jack Biddle, R-Gardendale, reminded
Campbell of what he told him at the start of the meeting. "We want you
to tell us what we can help you do," Biddle said. "Just don't mention
money."