ROBERTS: TOO MANY PRISONERS

State Senator Suggests Change To Alabama's Habitual Offender Law

MONTGOMERY-After listening to Alabama Department of Corrections
Commissioner Donal Campbell describe prison overcrowding Tuesday, Sen.
Tommy Ed Roberts has changed his mind about the state's sentencing policy.

Roberts, D-Hartselle, said the situation in Alabama's prisons has reached
the point that "we can't keep throwing everyone in jail."

"I've been a part of that thinking, and it hasn't worked," said Roberts.
"You've got to find a balance to where the prison population is reduced but
also ensure the public that we're not turning violent criminals loose.
Finding that balance is going to be the challenge."

Roberts said lawmakers should look at exempting nonviolent crimes from the
Habitual Offender Act.

Under the current Habitual Offender Act, a person who has three prior
felony convictions - violent or nonviolent - and is convicted of a
subsequent Class A felony is sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Roberts' comments came after Campbell told members of the Joint Legislative
Budget Committee that additional funding and changes in sentencing policies
are needed to ease overcrowding problems.

At the local level in Limestone County, Sheriff Mike Blakely is taking
steps to keep nonviolent prisoners out of jail by using an electronic
monitoring system. Up to 60 people are expected to participate. Judges will
determine eligibility for the at-home arrest program which begins March 1.

Campbell asked lawmakers for $154 million in new revenue to run his
department. Of that amount, $29.2 million is needed to keep the department
afloat until the end of the fiscal year in September.

Federal Court Order

The prison system is under a federal court order to ease overcrowding at
Tutwiler Prison for women in Wetumpka and a state court order to
immediately spend $2.4 million to house inmates and accelerate parole hearings.

Adding to the problem is a request made Monday by the Alabama State
Employees Association and prison wardens to intervene in the Tutwiler case
because of unsafe working conditions in state prisons.

"In 1992, there were 2,192 correctional officers to handle 15,349 inmates,"
Campbell told members of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. "Today, we
have 2,621 correctional officers - roughly an increase of 400 - and we have
25,317 inmates.

Corrections Department officials didn't have similar 10-year figures
immediately available for individual prisons. However, current figures from
January show there were 247 correctional officers and 2,182 inmates at
Limestone.

The facility is supposed to have 256 officers, a figure prison system
officials said has changed little over the past several years. Divided
between three shifts, each of the 247 officers at Limestone oversees 26
inmates. That margin increases whenever an officer takes time off for
vacation or sick leave.

When it opened in 1984, Limestone housed 874 inmates.

Despite the high inmate-to-officer ratio, Campbell - a former Tennessee
prison commissioner who worked his way up the ranks from a correctional
officer - described morale as good and said that the prison system's staff
is "hanging in there."

"I don't hear that," said Rep. Tommy Carter, D-Elkmont, who attended
Tuesday's meeting. "It's been a while since I talked to them, but when I
talked to them morale wasn't good."

Campbell said the need for an additional $29.2 million this year is to pay
personnel costs and benefits, cover increasing inmate health costs and get
state inmates out of county jails.

Of the $125.8 million requested for 2004, some $60 million is for a new
women's prison to alleviate overcrowding at Tutwiler.

Campbell agreed with a number of lawmakers who said more money alone isn't
going to solve the overcrowding problem. A change in sentencing policies
needs to be seriously examined, he said.

He said Tennessee reexamined its sentencing laws and reduced their prison
overcrowding.

"We've got to look at options," said Carter. "We've got nonviolent people
sitting in prisons that could be out working and paying taxes like you and me."

Campbell told lawmakers if they don't do something to address the
overcrowding in the prison system, "someone else will," referring to the
federal court.