NO ARREST PLAN UPSETS CRIME VICTIM

John Jackson was taught "you do the crime, you do the time."

Jackson, as one of Montgomery's latest victims of what might be considered
a nonviolent crime, has strong feelings about what is happening to
criminals in Montgomery.

Vandals broke $3,000 worth of windows at his tire store Wednesday morning.
Nothing was stolen and no one was hurt, which leads Jackson to speculate
the windows were broken just for the fun of it.

Because of prison and jail overcrowding, though, those who vandalized his
store might never go to jail, even if a felony warrant is signed against
them for the crime.

"I understand the overcrowding problem," he said. But, he added, a balance
must be found between the practice of punishing people for their crimes,
and paying the cost of the punishment.

To ease overcrowding in the Montgomery County Detention Facility, Sheriff
D.T. Marshall has ordered that county jail admissions be restricted to
those with new criminal charges or with old charges for violent crimes.
Nonviolent felons such as vandals or drug users who have old outstanding
warrants against them will not be arrested because there is no room for
them in the county jail.

The jail on McDonough Street was designed in the 1980s to hold 304. On
Wednesday morning, the jail held 506, Marshall said.

"(In) the perfect world, it would be good to put all criminals in jail,"
said Miriam Shehane, director of Victims of Crime and Leniency (VOCAL), a
crime victims advocacy group. "But people don't want to put money up to put
criminals in jail."

Brian Corbett, spokesman for the State Department of Corrections, said
prisons statewide are overcrowded, causing a lot of tension.

The state prison system is facing the same difficulty, said Corbett. He
said prisons statewide are designed to hold 13,600. As of the end of
October, Alabama had 27,763 inmates.

Marshall said the admission restriction has not yet had a great effect at
the detention facility.

Marshall's wants those wanted on old warrants --two or three years old --
charging them with minor crimes, such as possession of illegal drugs or
with failing to appear in court or pay fines to be spared a trip to jail if
they encounter an officer.

Anyone with a warrant, regardless of its age, will be arrested if charged
with a crime considered to be violent. Violent crimes include murder,
assault, robbery, burglary and any crime involving a weapon. Those charged
with dealing drugs also will be arrested, he said.

"Each case will be handled differently," Marshall said.

Montgomery police say they do not plan to change their arrest practices.
Those charged with misdemeanors in the city are booked into the city jail.

Those arrested on felonies in the city could go to the county detention
facility.

City police standard procedure is to ask the county sheriff's office
permission before taking someone to the county jail, Montgomery Police
Dept. Lt. Huey Thornton said.

If the county does not want the prisoner, Thornton said, "we cut him loose."