13 STATE INMATES REMOVED FROM CALHOUN COUNTY JAIL

The Alabama Department of Corrections removed 13 state inmates Monday from
the Calhoun County Jail, lowering the total number of state inmates in the
jail from 75 to 62.

Based on the most current data available, the jail still holds the dubious
distinction of housing more state inmates than any other county facility in
the state. Much of its crammed inmate population still sleep four to a cell
on mats tossed upon the concrete floor.

Tasked with overseeing a state prison system that also is bloated beyond
capacity, the corrections department typically moves fewer than half the
number of prisoners that it pulled from the county jail Monday. "I was
pleasantly surprised that we had that many go unexpectedly," said Sheriff
Larry Amerson, whose jail was built in 1986 to hold 260 inmates, but was
holding 298 on Tuesday.

Corrections officials have conceded that space and infrastructure
restraints are keeping the state from removing more.

The state could parole 11,000 of its current 26,000-inmate population and
still remain at full prison capacity, acknowledged John Hamm, a corrections
department spokesman.

Taxpayers in Calhoun County pay almost all the $24 per day associated with
jailing a state prisoner here. That could change based on the outcome of a
lawsuit counties have filed against the state. In that lawsuit, a retired
judge has recommended the state pay counties $26 per day for each state
prisoner and $2.16 million backpay for prisoners held beyond 30 days
between Sept. 3, 2001, and April 16, 2002.

"If we got paid (the cost of housing the state inmates) we could hire more
staff," Amerson said, referring to an inmate-to-jailer ratio that sometimes
reaches 90:1. "We could obtain the resources and buy the supplies we need
to take care of them (the inmates)."

Right now, the sheriff doesn't have enough money in his stretched budget to
fix faulty electric locks that automatically seal connecting passageways.
Jailers padlock doors overnight, which Amerson said could prove disastrous
should a fire sweep through the facility's attic.

According to Amerson, there are a number of county jails across the state
with additional space that would jump at the chance to hold state inmates
if they were compensated for it.

Some progress has been made in the last nine days to relieve the strain of
overcrowding on the Calhoun County Jail.

Hamm said 21 of the 210 state inmates uprooted from county jails since
April 29 came from Calhoun County.

Bed space opens as prisoners are paroled.

Meetings between the Board of Pardons and Paroles, the corrections
department and a representative of Gov. Don Siegelman occur weekly. The
topic, says Pardons and Paroles Board Director Bill Segrest, "has always
been the number of state inmates in county jails."

Since last summer, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles has held four
days of hearings a week instead of the customary three to help reduce the
overcrowding problem.

The extra day is set aside exclusively for parole hearings of non-violent
offenders who exhibit good behavior, said Bill Segrest, director of the board.

A vast majority of these early parolees are drug offenders arrested for
simple possession, said Segrest, who added that between 60-70 percent of
these offenders are granted early parole.

He said the extra day has helped the board to parole a total of 774
prisoners since Jan. 1. But it's uncertain how long the extra hearings will
last. They are scheduled to end June 6.

Many officials blame past and current sentencing policies for the
overcrowding in state and county prisons.

Those policies "have led to a mushrooming prison population, increasing
from about 4,000 inmates in 1970 to over 27,000 in 2001," says the Alabama
Sentencing Commission in the synopsis of its Jan. 7 initial report to the
Legislature.

The state in the same time period grew from 3.4 million population to 4.4
million, just a 29 percent growth in population compared with a 575 percent
growth in prison population.

"This growth," the commission's report went on to say, "took place as
Alabama adopted greater and greater punitive measures that 'sounded good'
or appeared 'tough on crime' or appeared to correct inequities in existing
practices. These measures have been passed without projecting their impact
on either crime, the criminal justice system or Alabama's communities.

"Alabama was, therefore, unable to evaluate the effectiveness of the new
laws or to adequately plan for the increases in prison bed space and other
associated costs.

"Without changes in the way sentencing policies are adopted, the future
offers no long-term relief."

The commission is tasked with developing a comprehensive discretionary
sentencing plan, which could be available for legislators to mull over by
the 2003 Legislative session.