COVID-19 relief money could help pay for Alabama prisons

If work begins on new prisons in Alabama next month, COVID-19 relief money might be a big reason.

A proposal to build two new men's correctional facilities would use at least $400 million from state and local relief funds to start immediate work on the new prisons, one in Escambia County and another in Elmore County.

House Ways and Means General Fund committee chair Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, who worked on the proposal, said the money would lower the cost of interest payments and show the federal government – which is suing Alabama over violence in men's prisons – that the state is serious about addressing the problem.

The plan also would allow work on the prisons to begin as soon as the Legislature approved the bill. The legislation would authorize a $785 million bond to pay for most of the project, but letting out the bond could take months.

Read more: https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/story/news/2021/09/13/covid-19-money-could-help-pay-alabama-prisons/8315270002/