Alabama Democratic Party chair says prison plan 'putting old problems in new buildings'

Alabama Democratic Party Chair Chris England said today new prisons won’t fix the state’s overcrowded, understaffed, and violence-plagued correctional system.

England, who also represents a Tuscaloosa district in the House of Representatives, said criminal justice reforms are necessary if Alabama wants to fix prisons the Department of Justice says are riddled with violence, weapons, drugs and that hold men in dangerous conditions that violate the Constitution.

“It looks like we’re just kicking the can down the road,” England said. “Building prisons without engaging in real reform of the system is like history repeating itself in Alabama. Every time we come to this threshold, we always build prisons versus digging in and trying to figure out why we keep getting into this situation.

“For me, building prisons without dealing with your pardons and paroles system and the leadership there, building prisons without dealing with the lack of leadership in the Department of Corrections, and building prisons without sentencing reform that helps us properly identify who really deserves those long sentences, it’s just going to result in us putting old problems in new buildings.”

Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2021/09/alabama-democratic-party-chair-says-prison-plan-putting-old-problems-in-new-buildings.html