Incremental isn't enough: Alabama's continued need for criminal justice reform

Alabamians deserve a criminal justice system that treats people fairly when they are accused of crimes, rehabilitates people as quickly as possible and releases people once they’re ready to rejoin the community. But Alabama’s criminal justice system doesn’t meet those standards, and the state’s prisons are dangerous warehouses, not rehabilitation centers. Three inmates were murdered in a single five-day span just last month.

These murders occurred after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued the state in December 2020, citing rampant inmate-on-inmate violence, guard-on-inmate violence and sexual assaults. More than two dozen people incarcerated in Alabama prisons have been murdered since the DOJ informed the state that prison conditions are unconstitutional. The Justice Department filed the ongoing lawsuit only after the state failed to take steps to fix the shortcomings outlined in the DOJ’s April 2019 report on the prison system’s failures.

Alabama’s prisons have been severely understaffed and operating well above their designed capacity for years. And too many state officials either have ignored the issues or actively made these problems worse. During former director Charlie Graddick’s tenure, the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles contributed to the overcrowding problem by sharply reducing the number of prisoners released under supervision.

Graddick’s replacement is former state Sen. Cam Ward, who took charge in December 2020. Ward sponsored a criminal justice reform package that passed in 2015 and worked toward other reforms while in the Legislature. Ward also served on Gov. Kay Ivey’s criminal justice study group two years ago.

Read more: https://www.alarise.org/blog-posts/incremental-isnt-enough-alabamas-continued-need-for-criminal-justice-reform/
(Alabama Arise)