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EDITORIAL: Alabama sentencing reforms a tough task
John Peck
September 14, 2010
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. _ You don't hear many Alabama politicians clamoring for ways to reduce state prison populations.
But that's exactly what must be done soon to avoid the train wreck barreling down on Alabama's criminal justice system.
It's a system begging for major sentencing reforms if only state and local leaders have the backbone to implement them.
The disturbing thing is, this is not a new problem.
Year in and year out, Alabama prisons remain among the most crowded in the country. A story Sunday by Times staff writer Brian Lawson said Alabama prisons this year are operating at 195 percent capacity, making it the most crowded state prison system in the United States with just under 30,000 inmates.
There's no evidence that criminals in Alabama are worse than criminals anywhere else. Yet, somehow in this increasingly stronger law-and-order state, the "lock-them-up and throw-away-the-key" mentality prevails.
Proportionately more offenders are tossed behind bars who might be better served in rehabilitation programs like drug courts, boot camps and skills training.
Half of all new inmates in the system in 2009 were imprisoned for drug offenses, according to Alabama Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb. State prison costs quadrupled in Alabama in 20 years to $577 million in 2008.
With a severe budget crunch straining Alabama's correctional system and drug and theft cases continuing to clog court dockets, Cobb recently led a summit in Montgomery to identify ways to reduce jail overcrowding while still protecting the public from serious offenders.
Similar steps have been taken before. The Alabama Legislature created the Alabama Sentencing Institute years ago to study, among other things, recidivism rates and recommend alternative sentences that could be less costly and more effective.
Some recommendations were crafted into laws, but many were ignored by politicians who found them either politically unpopular or simply too complicated to pull off.
By some measures, Madison County judges have effectively utilized alternative sentencings through the use of special drug courts, a mental health court and a family drug court.
But there are clearly some counties where judges simply lock everybody up without regard to alternative sentences. Madison County Presiding Circuit Judge Karen Hall said the Alabama Legislature needs to address the lack of prison space and lack of programs offering rehabilitation or skills training.
Therein lies the dilemma: the disconnect between a citizenry wanting lawbreakers to pay for their crimes but unwilling to support programs that could steer them from crime.
The public, tired of crime, demands hardened punishment for even the most petty crimes. And certainly a case can be made that drug and property offenders need harsh punishment to be held accountable.
One contributory factor is the state's Habitual Offender Act that mandates longer terms for those convicted of repeat felony crimes. A major fault is that it often fails to differentiate between dangerous criminals and others.
Hall favors the addition of work camps, boot camps and halfway houses to bolster the state's alternative sentencing system. Increased frequency of parole hearings, with extra incentives for good behavior, can also be utilized.
The problem isn't limited to Alabama. The House-passed National Criminal Justice Commission Act pending in the U.S. Senate would create a blue-ribbon commission to look at every aspect of America's criminal justice system with an eye toward reshaping the process from top to bottom. Here are some alarming statistics that motivated that legislation:
- With 5 percent of the world's population, the U.S. now houses 25 percent of the world's reported prisoners.
- Incarcerated drug offenders have soared 1,200 percent since 1980.
- Four times as many mentally ill people are in prisons than in mental health hospitals.
- Approximately 1 million gang members reside in the U.S., many of them foreign-based; and Mexican cartels operate in 230-plus communities across the country.
- Post-incarceration re-entry programs are haphazard and often nonexistent, undermining public safety and making it extremely difficult for ex-offenders to become full, contributing members of society.
Alabama isn't the only state with a prison problem.
But it is a state that can ill afford to squander money on anything. Let's lock up the violent dangerous criminals and find wiser ways to deal with the others. It will help them - and us.