As policymakers continue to grapple with finding a feasible solution to Alabama’s prison woes, some suggest a legislative approach could prove to be too high of a hurdle in the fourth year of the quadrennium, which historically has been a year with a more low-key regular session given approaching elections.
Last week, State Rep. Steve McMillan (R-Foley) said as much and was bearish on the possibilities of the legislature proceeding on a viable solution that would likely involve new prison construction.
Former U.S. Attorney Jay Town, who, as a part of the Trump Department of Justice initiated action against the state of Alabama for Eighth Amendment violations within its prison system, warned inaction by the legislature would be a mistake and noted that the federal government was “undefeated” in these cases.
“[A]ttorney General Garland recently said nothing has changed since 2019,” he said. “Now, that’s the Attorney General of the United States. You can disagree with him if you want. But that’s a pretty serious statement from a pretty serious man. I don’t think it is fair to say that Alabama has done nothing. But if you want to punt this into the first year of the next quadrennium in 2023, it’s just a bad formula. I mean, DOJ is undefeated in these types of cases. And you know, Attorney General Steve Marshall can’t do anything about that. Kay Ivey can’t do anything about it. If nobody in the legislature is going to make any legislative changes, then what is the state of Alabama to do? Then what is the Department of Justice to do other than to continue to act has it has?”
Town rejected the notion that a review of sentencing was a part of the remedy for Alabama prisons.
“I don’t think so for a couple of reasons,” Town replied. “Number one, there’s just federalism principles that would prevent the federal court of the Department of Justice from saying, ‘Alabama, you have to have this law.’ That’s not a legal way to abate against these Eighth Amendment issues. Two, if you went back and you looked at every sentence of every person inside the walls, behind the walls of an Alabama prison, there are very few sentences that you are going to change. I believe, and don’t forget, I was a state prosecutor for 13 years before I became U.S. Attorney here in Madison County, Alabama — and I put a lot of those people that are in prison right now in prison. I prosecuted homicides and assaults and all of the worst things that those people do to one another, and those people belong in there. And those sentencing guidelines are what we use to divide the sentence, and I think that those are fair.”
Town offered two suggestions for legislators that could ease the ADOC’s burden over time: to invest in programs that could potentially reduce recidivism while inmates were incarcerated and tweak the threshold for some low-level felonies that resulted in prison time for convictions.
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.
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