PRISON RELIEF

Paroles Not Enough to Remedy Dangerous Overcrowding

Two recent news stories illustrate the bog Alabama finds itself mired in
while trying to bring prison overcrowding down to safe levels.

In one story, state prison Commissioner Donal Campbell told members of the
Alabama Sentencing Commission that the state's plan to parole an additional
5,000 inmates next year won't come close to fixing prisons' problems. Many
of those eligible for parole, Campbell explained, will come from
work-release centers and won't do much to ease prison crowding. Plus, even
if the state did manage to parole an extra 5,000 inmates, prisons built to
hold only about 12,000 would still be crammed with nearly twice that many.

In the other story, a panel of lawmakers heard that the way the state
sentences convicts and underinvests in alternatives to incarceration makes
it that much more difficult for the state to fix prisons. Even parole and
community corrections programs, for example, won't quickly resolve the
crowding problem at Tutwiler Prison for Women. Campbell said there aren't
enough nonviolent inmates at the prison suitable for such alternatives.

What's clear from both stories is that Alabama is going to have to do a lot
more other than speed up paroles to make major headway against the problems
that have made our prisons ticking time bombs. Worse, the state must do it
with essentially one hand tied behind its back because of the state budget
crisis.

Yet, there are things the state can and should do in addition to paroles.

Sentencing reform, to reduce the number of convicts going into prison, is a
must. A Washington, D.C.-based prison reform policy group has joined many
voices inside Alabama urging legislators to change the state's habitual
offender law, which sends many nonviolent and drug offenders to prison for
lengthy terms.

The state also must expand community corrections and substance-abuse
programs. This could reduce the number of people going to prison and speed
up the release of those already there. These programs cost only a fraction
of what it takes to keep inmates in prison.

Blame misguided policies and chronic underfunding for the state prison
crisis. Unfortunately, there is no cheap and easy solution.

But officials can work their way out of the morass if they are willing to
rethink the way the state punishes criminals.