PAROLE PANEL MEETS TO SPEED UP RELEASE OF 5,000 INMATES

Goal Is to Cut Costs, Make State Prisons Less Crowded

MONTGOMERY - The state Board of Pardons and Paroles doubled its
ability to consider parole cases Monday when a new, four-member panel
began hearings to release nonviolent offenders under a plan to relieve
prison overcrowding.

The panel, meeting in an industrial park in Montgomery, was created
during the last legislative session to help release up to 5,000
nonviolent inmates - many convicted of petty theft, DUI or drug cases.
Releasing nonviolent offenders is also one way the state is cutting
expenses in the wake of a budget shortfall and the defeat of Gov. Bob
Riley's $1.2 billion tax plan in September.

The second parole board, which will operate until 2006, is expected
to hear 40 to 50 cases a day, Monday through Thursday, said Cynthia
Dillard, assistant executive director of the paroles board.

The permanent three-member board also hears roughly 40 to 50 cases a
day, Dillard said.

On Mondays, both boards consider cases that deal with violent
offenders. That day also is typically when attorneys, victims or other
witnesses are asked to make a case for or against parole. The rest of
the week, the boards hear cases involving nonviolent offenders.

This summer, Riley said he planned to release 5,000 inmates to help
relieve prison overcrowding. Alabama prisons are running at more than
double capacity.

Lawmakers approved extra money for the new board and extra parole
officers in the 2004 budget to make the early releases possible.

Riley's picks - Lowell McGill Jr. of Atmore, Cliff Walker of Bessemer,
Don McGriff of Montrose and Jennifer Mullins Garrett of Montgomery -
must still be approved by the state Senate when it meets in February.
Each member will earn $76,000 a year for their three-year terms.

The early release of thousands of inmates won't fix the state's
troubled Corrections Department, which as of the end of October had
27,643 inmates housed in prisons built for 12,378 people.

Of those numbers, 277 female prisoners and roughly 1,400 male inmates
are being housed in private prisons outside the state, in Louisiana
and Mississippi.

Riley's administration wants to return those inmates to Alabama in
coming months.

The total inmate population peaked in June with 28,440 and has
steadily dropped since then.

Also included in the total prison population are inmates who are part
of the state's work-release program, where many nonviolent offenders
are placed.

That means work-release inmates are likely to be the first considered
for the new parole board's docket, but that won't necessarily help
free beds at the state's 16 correctional facilities.

The state operates 12 work-release centers, including one in
Decatur.

Brian Corbett, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said
it's "too early to say" what effect the parole board's extra docket
will have on the work-release program.

Already, the program's numbers are dropping. In October, 2,857 inmates
were housed in work-release centers, down from 3,598 in October 2002.

Corbett said the second board's parole hearings could "affect the
work-release program statewide." As work-release inmates are paroled,
the cost of running the program will drop as well, he said.

Work release cost the state roughly $20 million last year, Corbett
said, but generated $17 million in revenue.

He acknowledged that the likely release of many work-release inmates
doesn't help the state's overcrowded prisons, where beds are reserved
for violent offenders who aren't eligible for the hearings under the
expanded parole docket.

Prison Commissioner Donal Campbell told the state Sentencing
Commission last month that expedited parole dockets likely would
reduce work-release inmate numbers, as well as other nonviolent
inmates who might be eligible to enter the work-release program.

"The inmates that will be left will not be eligible for work release,"
he said Nov. 7.

Corbett said Monday there are "no plans to do away with ... work
release."

As the Board of Pardons and Paroles works to release nonviolent
offenders, its docket for violent offenders has a 14-month backlog of
cases, Dillard said.

The culprit, she said, is a requirement to notify victims or next of
kin, attorneys, law enforcement agencies and other parties. "It could
be a victim from 20 years ago," she said.

The board hopes to introduce legislation next year allowing it to
notify victims at their last known address, shortening the
notification period, Dillard said.

Once parole is granted, it usually takes a week or more before the
inmate is released, Dillard said.

The prisoner has to have a home and job plan first, which has to be
checked out by a parole officer.

In the case of some inmates who may have conditions attached to their
parole - including drug or other rehab programs - the wait could be
longer.

The paroles board has more than 400 employees and likely will have 450
to 500 by the time it hires the necessary parole officers to handle
those released in the coming months, Dillard said.

Parole officers make up the largest group of department employees -
about 300 workers, including supervisors and managers.

She said the training and requirements for a parole officer make
hiring new ones a lengthy process. Applicants must have a college
degree and must complete a 12-week class. All parole officers are
sworn law enforcement members and have statewide arrest authority,
Dillard said. "It's not a fast process."

She said the biggest misconception the board faces is that the newly
paroled inmates will be released, free and clear.

The board already is responsible for 30,000 people on probation and
another 8,000 on parole.