ACCA’s Brasfield calls for legislature to work to allow state inmates to be housed at county jails if needed on a short-term basis

Last week, the Alabama Department of Corrections closed portions of the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, which resulted in the relocation of 600 prisoners to other facilities.

According to Association of County Commissions of Alabama executive director Sonny Brasfield, had certain measures been in place, unoccupied bed space in county jails around the state could have been made available to house some of those inmates on a short-term basis.

During an appearance on Huntsville radio’s WVNN, Brasfield explained it was his hope that the legislature would consider a remedy that his organization and the Alabama Sheriffs Association are partnering on to make that scenario a reality.

“We had a meeting with the leadership of the sheriffs association this morning to be the finishing touches on a bill that we’ll have ready, not the first week but pretty soon, that we’re calling the inmate housing cooperative so we can set up a standard contract, a standard set of procedures, standard reimbursement practices – those kinds of things so that the counties that do have some extra bed space,” Brasfield said on “The Jeff Poor Show.” “And there are some around the state, that they can make that bed space available to the state on a short-term basis at a reasonable investment on the state’s part that would help address some of the issues that come up from time to time.”

“One of those has happened this week with some inmates that had to be moved out of Holman,” he continued. “If we had this process together right now, we’d be able to put the Department of Corrections in touch with sheriffs and county commissions that could help. So, on the one hand we are going to be asking for some relief. But on the other hand, we do have some other counties where we think we can bring some value to the table to help the state as well.”

Brasfield explained medical and security issues that needed to be worked through legislatively to make such cooperation between the state and the counties a reality.

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly and host of Huntsville’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN.