ALABAMA PRISON CRISIS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Alabama's love affair with incarceration has failed from a crime-control perspective. If the purpose of prisons is to combat crime and provide for public safety then Alabama's tendency to "lock them up and let the parole board sort them out" must be viewed as a failure. While the growth in the state's incarceration rate has outpaced the nation as a whole, Alabama lags behind when it comes to reducing index crime rates. Further, a disproportionate, and growing, share of the state's correctional resources has been devoted to incarcerating people convicted of nonviolent offenses. Person offenses accounted for just a quarter of prison admissions during the last half-decade, and the proportion continues to fall as drug and property commitments grow. The use of incarceration for offenses that are directly tied to substance abuse contributes significantly to Alabama's overcrowding crisis. Among the ten leading commitment offenses, the top three are substance-related. Drug and alcohol offenses account for just 38 percent of all prison admissions. In 2004, more people were admitted to prison for possession of marijuana than for first-and-second degree assaults combined. While many states taken to reduce incarceration of substance abusers, Alabama is allowing addiction to drive prison growth. Comparing 1999 and 2004, commitments for drug possession and DUI were up by 28 percent, respectively, while admissions for personal offenses were down by 14 percent.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE ALABAMA PRISON SUMMARY PART 2

Alabama's overuse of incarceration and attendant prison crisis stem from two flaws in the state's criminal justice system. First, the current sentencing structure exposes defendants charged with nonviolent and low-level offenses to the same long sentencing ranges as others whose crimes pose a much greater risk to public safety. The problem is compounded by harsh mandatory sentencing laws -including the state's repeat-offense statute and "drug-free zone" enhancements-that fall hardest on those convicted of non violent crimes.
Alabma's Habitual Felony Offender Act-considered one of the toughest in the nation-exposes defendants to sentences that are up to ten times the sentence permitted for first-offenders. Under the law, an individual charged with stealing $3,000 who has one previous felony conviction faces the same harsh sentencing range, 10 to 99 years, whether the prior conviction was for marijuana possession or murder. In fact, prisoners sentenced as "habitual offenders" were twice as likely to be serving time for property offenses as personal offenses. Further, wide variation in use of the statute exacerbates sentencing disparity. For example, prisoners committed from Montgomery were two times more likely to be sentenced as "habitual offenders" than those committed from Mobile.
The second cause of Alabama's prison crisis is historic underinvestment in community corrections, which has left judges with few options apart from the already overburdened prison and probation systems. The state's community corrections programs have been shown to be a popular and effective way to criminal justice costs while improving outcomes. Despite progress made in the last few years, however, half of Alabama counties have no access to community corrections programs. This development of a strategic plan to increase funding support to assure that every judge has effective penalty options and sufficient high-quality substance abuse treatment placements at hand when making sentencing decisions.