TIME TO SPEND MORE WISELY ON OUR CORRECTIONS SYSTEM

Yet more news comes from yet another source to show how drastically
underfunded is Alabama's state government.

As it has been in the past, the subject this time is prisons. Alabama
spends less than half as much money per inmate as do Southern neighbors
Tennessee and North Carolina, and indeed spends less than any other state
in the union.

A good comparison might be Arkansas, hardly known for profligate
mollycoddling of criminals. As it was put by Dina Tyler, spokeswoman for
the Arkansas prison system, "There's not a bit of waste in our system."

Yet Arkansas spends $6,500, or 62.5 percent, more per inmate than Alabama does.

The result is that Alabama's prisons are dangerous, ineffective at
rehabilitation, unaccredited and under federal court order to correct
inhumane conditions.

To save money, the state is in the process of speeding up parole for
thousands of prisoners who otherwise would stay behind bars for much
longer. In some cases that's a good thing, because some non-violent
offenders aren't likely to commit other infractions; but in other cases
there will doubtless be inmates released who really are a threat to society.

That's especially true when one considers that Alabama particularly skimps
on its spending for just the kinds of programs that can make recidivism
less likely: substance-abuse treatment, anger management, parenting courses
and treatment aimed at sex offenders.

So if crime rises in Alabama in the next few years because of the early
release of criminals who haven't been rehabilitated, Alabamians will have
only themselves to blame for their refusal to adequately fund their own
government. In that sense, Alabama's financial bind is a prison of its own
making.