Alabama plans to use $400M in COVID relief funds to build new prisons
Alabama sparks backlash after unveiling plan to use $400M in COVID relief funds to build new prisons
Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, touted Alabama’s $1.3billion plan to build three new prisons and renovate others to lighten burden on corrections system Lawmakers plan to draw up to $400million from Alabama’s $2.2billion share of American Rescue Plan funds to build prisonsCritics of the plan argue the state should not be using pandemic relief dollars to build prisons GOP legislative leaders have defended the use of COVID relief funds, saying it will allow the state to avoid paying interest on a loan Department of Justice last year sued Alabama, saying the state prisons for men were riddled with violence
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Facing a Justice Department lawsuit over Alabama’s notoriously violent prisons, state lawmakers on Monday unveiled a controversial plan to use hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic relief funds to help pay for the construction of massive new penitentiaries.
Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, has touted Alabama’s $1.3billion plan to build three new prisons and renovate others as a partial solution to the state’s longstanding troubles in its corrections system.
The proposal would draw up to $400million from the state’s $2.2billion share of American Rescue Plan funds to help pay for the construction.
‘I am pleased and extremely hopeful that we are finally positioned to address our state´s prison infrastructure challenges,’ the governor said in a statement last week. ‘While this issue was many years in the making, we stand united to provide an Alabama solution to this Alabama problem.’
But critics of the plan say the state’s prison problems go beyond building conditions and that the state should not be using pandemic relief dollars to build prisons.
In this October 22, 2019, photo, a sign reads, ‘HELP,’ in the window of an inmate cell seen during a tour by state officials at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. State lawmakers plan to use COVID relief funds to help pay for the construction of new prisons
The Department of Justice last year sued Alabama, saying the state prisons for men were riddled with violence. Pictured: Inmates from the Limestone Correctional Facility on a chain gang
‘This week, the Alabama Legislature plans to spend $400million in American Rescue Plan funds – money intended to help your local schools, get your kids into affordable childcare, provide a lifeline to your small business, or assist your struggling rural hospital – to build two new mega-prisons,’ said Katie Glenn, a policy associate with the SPLC Action Fund, an arm of the Southern Poverty Law Center. ‘Not only is this a poor decision, it robs our communities of the money they desperately need to rebuild after 18 months of the pandemic.’
The Alabama prison construction proposal calls for at least three new prisons – a prison in Elmore County with at least 4,000 beds and enhanced space for medical and mental health care needs; another prison with at least 4,000 beds in Escambia County; and a women’s prison – as well as renovations to existing facilities.
President Joe Biden’s sweeping $1.9trillion COVID-19 rescue package known as the American Rescue Plan was signed in March, providing a stream of funds to states and cities to recover from the pandemic. The program gives broad discretion to states and cities on how to use the money.
Republican legislative leaders said they are comfortable they can legally use the funds because the American Rescue Plan, in addition to authorizing the dollars for economic and health care programs, says states can use the money to replace revenue lost during the pandemic to strengthen support for vital public services and help retain jobs.
Ivey and GOP legislative leaders have defended the use of the virus funds, saying it will enable the state to essentially ‘pay cash’ for part of the construction and avoid using state dollars as well as paying interest on a loan.
‘We don’t have to borrow quite as much money and pay all that money back,’ Ivey told reporters last week as she defended using virus funds for prison construction.
The Department of Justice last year sued Alabama, saying the state prisons for men are ‘riddled with prisoner-on-prisoner and guard-on-prisoner violence.’
The lawsuits came after the Justice Department issued reports describing a culture of violence and listed a litany of incidents including a prison guard beating a handcuffed prisoner in a medical unit while shouting, ‘I am the reaper of death, now say my name!’ as the prisoner begged the officer to kill him.
Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, has touted Alabama’s $1.3billion plan to build three new prisons and renovate others to address violence in the state’s corrections system
The Justice Department issued reports describing a culture of violence in Alabama’s prisons and listed a litany of incidents
The department noted in a 2019 report that dilapidated conditions were a contributing factor to what it called unconstitutional conditions but emphasized that, ‘new facilities alone will not resolve the contributing factors to the overall unconstitutional condition of ADOC prisons, such as understaffing, culture, management deficiencies, corruption, policies, training, non-existent investigations, violence, illicit drugs, and sexual abuse.’
The state has disputed the accusations from the Justice Department but has acknowledged problems with staffing and building conditions.
Prison construction is the centerpiece of Monday’s special session call, but it also includes two policy changes: proposals to make retroactive both the 2013 sentencing standards and a 2015 law on mandatory supervision of released inmates.
Bennet Wright, executive director of the Alabama Sentencing Commission, said they estimated that would allow up to 700 inmates to apply for reduced sentences.
