FREEING NONVIOLENT OFFENDERS WOULD EASE PRISON CRUNCH

My Turn

Gov. Bob Riley has no idea how to solve Alabama's prison overcrowding
problem. That much was evident in statements he made to The Associated
Press last week.

"It's probably going to take some more money," the new governor said.
"How much we don't know."

Where will this money come from? See the above answer: We don't know.
Because of Alabama's annual budget shortfall, there are no new sources
of revenue to pay for new prisons. Riley hired prison commissioner
Donal Campbell for $91,000 per year, a $6,000 increase over the
previous commissioner Mike Haley's salary. To save money last year,
Chief Justice Roy Moore suspended the right to a trial by jury for
prisoners. It was either that or voluntarily reducing his salary and
that of other judges. So much for Christian sacrifice.

But there's no room in the budget for the prisoners themselves, the
politicians say. We spend too much on them already.

Actually, we don't. Alabama is ranked last in prison spending. Our
prisons were barely constitutional before the incarceration rates
surged in the 1980s and 1990s, when "get tough on crime" rhetoric was
in vogue.

Prison populations in this state rose from 8,000 to more than 27,000,
an increase of 264 percent. Alabama's population only grew 14 percent
by comparison.

Alabama also spends the least on health care for its prisoners. People
who are kept in close quarters for unreasonable lengths of time are
more vulnerable to contagious diseases. One can't help but draw a
comparison between the living conditions of Alabama prisoners today
and slaves kept in cramped quarters during the glory days of the
antebellum South. What's happening in our state and local jails today
is no less barbaric.

According to the lawsuits (and there are several) that have been
filed, respiratory illnesses like tuberculosis are not uncommon in an
Alabama prison. A lawsuit filed on behalf of the women of Tutwiler
Prison in Wetumpka alleges that private health care providers under
contract with the state have neglected to care for inmates with HIV.
Of course, with a prison system this congested, one wonders how an
Alabama prisoner can receive any treatment at all. When there are
eight people living in a four-person sardine-can-sized cell, medicine
is a futile exercise.

Tutwiler Prison holds 1,000 women in a facility designed for 400 to
600 people. An additional 757 state inmates still need to be
transferred from county to state prisons. As a temporary solution to
the backlog, Riley has suggested we house prisoners in private
facilities, an idea once entertained by former Gov. Don Siegelman.
Siegelman's original proposal called for some 500 prisoners to be
transferred to an LCS Corrections Services prison in Louisiana.

Let's do the math here: We have 757 prisoners waiting to be
transferred and another 500 or so waiting for a new prison to
magically drop out of the sky. That is more than 1,000 prisoners we
have absolutely no room for. At the rate Alabama incarcerates people,
moving 500 prisoners would barely make a dent.

I would ask Riley to consider this: If the nonviolent offenders in our
system were paroled, we would have space for an additional 4,000
inmates. In 2001, more Alabamians were jailed for possession of
controlled substances and DUIs than any other offense.

The current proposals for abolishing repeat offender statutes are a
good start, but they are not specific enough. Mandatory minimum
sentencing laws would keep a nonviolent drug offender in jail while a
first-time rapist could be paroled. Which do you fear more: someone
smoking a joint in his backyard or someone who is trying to rape and
kill you? I think most people would pick the rapist.

I am always amazed at the people in this state who claim to be
Christians and are so unsympathetic toward the basic humanity of
others. Prisoners have been designated as less-than-human parasites
unworthy of anything but our contempt. Politicians like Riley use our
fear of crime to bolster their own image. Demonizing the incarcerated
is like libeling the dead. Criminals can do very little to refute
character assassination. They can't even vote. Who cares, say the
Christians. They're criminals!

That opinion may change overnight if things get too out of hand. In
Alabama prisons, inmates outnumber guards 400 to 1. All it would take
is one good riot that threatens to spill into nearby communities to
get our attention. Riley should have a better answer for a federal
judge by now than "We don't know." Every time Riley doesn't know
something, it will cost Alabama millions of dollars in federal fines.

Our budget is already coming up short. Can we really afford to "get
tough" on substance abusers? I repeat: If we parole all nonviolent
offenders, 4,000 spaces will be available. We can fill those with all
the rapists, murderers, child molesters or any other human monsters
that come to mind. I'm all for that. But I can't rationalize letting a
rapist go and keeping the pot smoker in jail. We've got to set some
priorities here.

This problem must be dealt with now. Paroling nonviolent offenders
would be the quickest, cheapest way to deal with the situation. It
would save Alabama the embarrassment of appearing so dysfunctional
that another state has to solve its problems. Personally, I think
Riley would rather kill a mockingbird than look soft on crime. That's
the ultimate taboo among Southern conservatives. And Southern
conservatives couldn't possibly be wrong about anything. No way.

~~~~~~~~~
Dan Whisenhunt is a junior in the College of Communication
and Information Sciences.