Last year the Alabama legislature passed a $1.3 billion plan to build two new men’s prisons, $400 million of which will come from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
The new prison plan is an attempt to appease U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) after the federal agency filed a lawsuit against the state in 2020 over prison conditions in Alabama.
During Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) budget meetings last week in Montgomery, new concerns have been raised about the conditions of Alabama’s prisons. ADOC Director John Hamm revealed to lawmakers that the department is having trouble hiring new correctional officers.
Despite the ongoing issues with Alabama’s prison system, State Sen. Greg Albritton told Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal” that he doesn’t believe the DOJ will take control of the prisons.
“I don’t think so,” said Albritton responding the the idea of DOJ taking control of Alabama’s prisons. “We’re doing all that we can and all that we know how, and I’m not convinced because the times that the feds did take over in different places, it wasn’t any better, it didn’t help. They have that ability to do so, they can do that. I hope they don’t and I do not believe that they will. We’re doing everything we can right now to make things better. I think we’re on the right track.”
The state senator admitted that ADOC is in a tough position right now because of current economic conditions.
“We don’t have the complete answer of how to hire people,” he lamented, “but that transcends just DOC, that’s the state in general. We can’t hire people for mental health and several other things. We have something in our economy that just does not draw people to be hired at this point. That’s a problem…we’ve done bonuses, we’ve done overtime, we’ve done restructuring of levels of employment and such. We’ve done lots of things and put millions of dollars into it and we’ve got fewer people now than we had four years ago.”
Albritton said he realizes the state is in a tough position, but believes they will find a solution to the hiring issues soon.
“It’s a difficult situation to be in,” he admitted, “but Commissioner Hamm is working on it. I know that he understands the problems…he understands what the challenges are. We’ve got to work together to find the solutions and he’s willing to do that.”
About the budget hearings in general, the veteran Alabama lawmaker believes they’re achieving most of the goals set out by the legislature.
“They are accomplishing what they needed to do, I believe so,” he said. “Now we haven’t finished yet and we may have to do some more of them even after September. The important part is to bring the level of knowledge, not just to legislators in my committee, but also to the attention of the agencies and the state employees and others that are affected every day by this, of how inflation and how the economy is affecting us, and what does the future look like.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
