The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The Birmingham News  Tuesday, February 22, 2005
CARLA CROWDER
News staff writer

Backed by Attorney General Troy King, a bill has been introduced in the Alabama Senate that would abolish the special parole board appointed to help clear nonviolent felons out of the state's beleaguered prisons.

The bill, introduced earlier this month, would end the panel's term in July, 15 months earlier than originally planned.

Supporters say the board has finished its job. Inmate advocates say more nonviolent prisoners could safely be paroled.

Gov. Bob Riley appointed the board during the state's 2003 financial crisis. His plan was to speed up paroles of nonviolent offenders to save the state money and comply with federal court pressure to relieve crowded, dilapidated conditions at several prisons.

The effort led to 2,219 nonviolent offenders getting paroled. The total prison population fell only about 350, though, because of new people coming in. The early paroles did reverse the trend of Alabama's prison population swelling every year.

The month the new board began, there were 27,344 prisoners. A year later, that was down to 27,016.

"It was created because it was our understanding there was a backlog of nonviolent offenders that had a profile, that they would be eligible for parole if the board had time to hear the cases," King said. "They could hear twice as many cases, and ... we'd get people who were not a threat to society back out of the prisons, and get us into compliance with court orders."

However, he said, "Those backlogs no longer exist."

Also, the work of the board has slowed.

"Both boards are not staying busy hearing cases," said Cynthia Dillard, assistant executive director of the board. "We're having to divide a smaller number of cases between two boards."

New board members Jennifer Garrett, Don McGriff, Cliff Walker and Steve McGill earn about $76,000 a year. Efforts to reach the governor's office for comment on the bill failed.

The highest number of paroles since the special board began was 542, last March. It slowed to 101 in October and hasn't reached 200 since.

With the prison population virtually stagnant and prisons at nearly double capacity, Corrections Commissioner Donal Campbell has requested a budget of $578 million next year, about double last year's funding. The request includes $151 million for two new prisons.

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Some people who work with parolees suggest that the board should look harder for nonviolent inmates who might do well at home. About 48 percent of Alabama prisoners are locked up for drug or property crimes, according to Department of Corrections statistics.

Hearings have been held for everyone eligible, but new prisoners come in regularly.

"We're talking about 27,000 people, one would think we could find 400 a month," said Chris Retan, director of Aletheia House, a Birmingham rehabilitation center that offers housing and treatment services to parolees.

The board heard the cases of 6,084 prisoners serving time for nonviolent cases. Many of the prisoners denied parole will have another chance in six months or a year.

Retan said one of the reasons the parole board delays releasing people is that there are not enough transition centers where they can live and get back on their feet.

Aletheia House, in a partnership with UAB's Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime program and the Montgomery nonprofit Aid to Inmate Mothers, has been running a re-entry program for women and another for men for about a year. All of the funding comes from the federal government. Most other halfway houses are faith-based, funded through churches or charities.

"There is no local support for re-entry programs, no state money," Retan said. "If there was funding for residential re-entry programs, the board would feel more comfortable releasing more people sooner."

Since the parole board began special hearings for nonviolent prisoners - even before the second board began - 4,174 prisoners have been released. Of those, 11 percent have had their parole revoked, either for new crimes or for a technical violation, such as not paying fines.

The bill to abolish the second board is sponsored by Sen. Steve French, R-Mountain Brook.

E-mail: ccrowder@bhamnews.com
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1109067427279530.
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