GOVERNOR SEEKS EARLY RELEASE FOR SOME INMATES

MONTGOMERY - Police chiefs Thursday braced for a new round of prisoner
releases and higher traffic fatalities as a possible result of Gov.
Bob Riley's plan to plug a $675 million hole in next year's budgets.

Prison commissioner Donal Campbell said Riley will seek legislation to
increase the number of parole board members from three to seven in
order to speed the release of between 5,000 and 6,000 inmates in the
next few months.

School officials said $180 million would have to be cut next year and
$140 million in fiscal year 2005.

Riley plans to submit his two state budgets to legislators in a
special session beginning Monday that will reflect the consequence of
Tuesday's failure of the $1.2 billion tax and accountability referendum.

Riley, by law, has to submit balanced general government and school
budgets for the new fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

This year's budgets are in trouble because a combination of rosy
income estimates and a poor national economy has slowed state tax
collections.

Riley had asked voters to pass his $1.2 billion tax and accountability
package to shore up existing state programs, create new ones and
generate money to address lingering problems. But voters defeated the
tax package 68 percent to 32 percent.

"Voters sent a powerful message this week that we have to live within
our means," Attorney General Bill Pryor said.

Pryor said the paroles of several thousand more inmates will increase
crime since not all released inmates can be expected "to be engaged in
lawful pursuits."

"The ripple effect of all of this is going to be severe to say the
least," Pryor said.

Public Safety Director Mike Coppage said trooper patrols will be
limited to 150 miles a day. He said 52 driver license centers, two
field offices and one trooper post will be closed. He did not identify
them.

He said fewer state trooper patrols will translate into fewer drunk
driving stops and more traffic fatalities.

Florence Police Chief Rick Singleton said departments "are doing good
to handle what they've got now."

"The impact is not going to be felt in the capital or the
statehouse," Singleton said. "It's going to be felt in the local
community."

He said inmates released to the Shoals will be hard pressed to find
jobs, because northwest Alabama has a relatively high unemployment
rate.

"We've got good, decent people who can't find a job right now," he
said. "When you put these people on the street, and if they can't find
a job, they'll resort to crime."

Pryor was asked what steps adult Alabamians should take to protect
themselves.

"My advice is for people to do what they can lawfully to protect their
homes and families," Pryor said. "Some will buy security systems and
some will engage in other behavior.

"People ought to be careful about protecting their homes and
families," he said.

Pryor predicted hundreds of layoffs in county prosecutor offices,
delays in justice and fewer grand juries and jury trials.

On the plus side, Finance Director Drayton Nabers said Alabama will
receive $265 million in one-time federal money next year, but $115
million will be earmarked to Medicaid.

The remaining $150 million will be split between the General Fund and
Education Trust Fund, he said.

Nabers said details for other state programs, including mental health
and colleges and universities, will be released Friday.

State education Superintendent Ed Richardson said public schools next
year face the loss of $180 million in mostly non-classroom funding.

In danger will be money for class instruction equipment, textbooks,
professional development, library books, high school graduation help,
at-risk students, operation and maintenance money, financial
intervention and a program called High Hopes.

"We will not be able to improve the education infrastructure," said
Nabers.

State Health Officer Don Williamson said he is freezing immediately
new applications for the Children's Health Insurance Plan that serves
61,000 children. He hopes through attrition to reduce the number of
children receiving state health insurance to 50,000.

He also won't be giving flu shots this winter and won't be doing
speedy septic tank inspections, which affect construction in rural
areas. He also won't be conducting the hypertension program for 16,000
people, won't be providing fluoridation for rural water systems, will
close multiple women and infant care, or WIC, sites and will lay off
between 200 and 250 people at state and county offices.

Medicaid Commissioner Mike Lewis said he'll seek to reduce the income
eligibility for new nursing home residents from 300 percent of the
federal poverty level to 200 percent.

That change would affect 3,000 elderly people, he said. "We are
looking at phasing this in so we do not have to have anyone leave who
is currently there," he said.

Republican Party Chairman Marty Connors, who opposed the $1.2 billion
tax plan as being too expensive, said the prisoner release shouldn't
cause a problem because inmates can be electronically monitored at
home.

"What we want is streamlined government, and what we found out on
Tuesday is the public wants it as well," Connors said. "The public
did not speak, the public screamed."

Cynthia Dillard, a spokeswoman for the Board of Pardons and Paroles,
said the department has no electronic monitoring capabilities and,
besides, it isn't cost effective.

"It takes more officer time to monitor people on electronic
monitoring," Dillard said. "Most of the time, you don't want them to
stay at home, you want them to get out and work."