1,500 inmates will be moved

Men will go to private prisons out of state

06/18/03

STAN BAILEY and KIM CHANDLER
News staff writers


MONTGOMERY Alabama prisons will move as many as 1,500 male inmates to private prisons in Louisiana or Mississippi in about three weeks, the prison commissioner said.

The move was made possible after state lawmakers approved an emergency $25 million for the system on Monday, Prison Commissioner Donal Campbell said.

The corrections system is under court orders to relieve a backlog of state inmates languishing in county jails awaiting transfer to state prisons. Montgomery County Circuit Judge William Shashy has ordered the system to remove convicts from Alabama's overcrowded county jails.

More than 300 inmates from Tutwiler Prison for Women have been transferred to a Louisiana prison already to comply with a federal judge's order to reduce overcrowding.

Campbell said he hasn't selected whom to hire to house the 1,500 inmates but an emergency contract will be awarded without taking bids.

"My first group of inmates, I hope to have up to 1,500 from across the state," said Campbell. "These will be minimum or medium custody. No maximum custody inmates."

The extra millions appropriated Monday night still will only allow Alabama's more than 28,000-inmate prison system to squeak through this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, Campbell said. He said the system faced an inability to make payroll without the $25 million included for prisons in the $39.5 million supplemental appropriation.

It passed late Monday, minutes before the session was required to end at midnight. Gov. Bob Riley had threatened to call lawmakers back into special session to deal with the prison funding crisis and to help stave off problems for other state agencies.

The extra millions won't do anything for next year, Campbell said. Riley has predicted he will have to cut state agencies if voters do not approve his $1.2 billion tax package. Campbell said that would mean a $44 million cut to prisons.

"It would be several hundred employees and several thousand inmates, up to 7,000 inmates that would not be funded in next year's budget," he said. "I don't know where they would go. I know it would mean we would not have the money to house them."

At least one lawmaker criticized Riley for the supplemental bill, which will exhaust any funds remaining in the state's General Fund and also wipe out the Rainy Day Fund, according to the Legislative Fiscal Office.

Sen. Roger Bedford questioned how Riley could expect voters to approve a $1.2 billion tax package after appropriating money the state didn't have by dipping into a state savings account. "This is spend and tax," said Bedford, D-Russellville.

Speaker of the House Seth Hammett, D-Andalusia, said several members questioned if the state should tap the Rainy Day Fund, but he believed corrections was facing a crisis. "As Rep. John Knight said, `it's raining'," Hammett said.

The $39.5 million supplemental appropriation also includes:

$4.7 million for the Department of Human Resources to provide subsidized day-care slots.

$640,350 to the secretary of state to provide a 5 percent match for federal dollars for voting programs.

$3 million to the court system to maintain current staff levels and jury trials.

$537,000 in state parks funds to the Selma-to-Montgomery Civil Rights Trail. The money would be sent to the Alabama Historical Commission for use in the project. The civil rights tourism project was unlike some of the other items in the spending bill where agencies were threatening to cut jury trials or staff without additional funds.

Hammett said Tuesday that the trail money was coming from a special bond fund for parks, not the state's General Fund. "I would not have supported funds for that purpose had they not come from that designated source," Hammett said.

When the politicians convinced the voters to okay all the new prisons, nobody bothered to educate the public to what all research has shown for decades-------that building more prisons doesn't cut crime, it just creates more prisoners. The more prisons built, the more people sentenced to them, and within ten years of building them, they're over capacity again. Where does it end? It will end when the public pulls their heads out and listens to those who try to talk sense to them, but that means public education---------people like us doing the research, writing the articles with the facts to back them up, and then getting out and hitting the streets with the information.

John is minimum custody and has heart problems, he's on a lot of medication and has to see a doctor in Montgomery. Does this new news mean that he will be transferred too?

I don't think anybody knows what the criteria for selection's going to be, bamadixiebelle. My guy's in medium so I'm a little concerned too. But 1500 out of all the minimum/medium security inmates there are is not a high number, so with any luck neither of our men will be one of the 1500.

well, i'm not sure how it will be with the men, but the "one i must obey" says it is a computer does the picking and choosing of who goes. she also told me that when they get ready to move the inmates, they lock down the whole place and shut the phones off for 24 hrs.they don't know when they are leaving, the guards come get them early in the morning on the day they are leaving. they will not be able to contact you until they get to where they are going.

again i don't know about the men, but this is the way it's done with the women.

This is going to be a little more than 5% of the male prison population, so odds are none of our loved ones will be moved. My husband is community custody, not minimum or medium, BUT this is the state of Alabama, so I'm not convinced he won't be transferred out of state. One can never, ever tell what the state's going to do.

Thanks for the head's up on how they've been moving people for Tutwiler, George.

According to my calculations, the men should begin being moved around July 10th. Just keep your eyes and ears open!

Well all I can say is I don't have to worry about this concern because Michael is in Max. But I do know this much if we don't stand together and voice our opinions about our inmates being sent out of state we will have two options . 1) they will continue to do it 2) private prisons will be build here in alabama. So you can sit on your behines or lets rally together and be heard for all the inmates and their families.

vicki

god forbid we should try to rehabilitate some of the prisoners... it's not like they're human or anything right...

this type of stuff makes me so mad!!

When Michigan did this and sent inmates to Virginia it was done like George said. They locked the facility down and no phone calls came....The next day I called MDOC records and that's how I found out where he was transferred to... There was no warning.... They took lower level security people and I have no clue how they were picked. MDOC fed the public, including MI-CURE, a lie that they "volunteered" to go to Virginia and would get more time off of their sentence to go....MI-CURE published the truth in their newsletters...

Deb

Talked to Brian tonight and he says the rumor mill is running rampant up there and the majority of the guys in his facility are just freaking out worried that they're gonna go. He said guys are giving their stuff away left and right, worried that they're going to get transferred and not be able to take certain stuff with them, and it's like a fire sale down there right now. He's pretty calm and unworried but he's apparently in the minority down there.

Yeah, the prisons are so stuffed to the gills overcrowded and already a riot risk because of that... getting everyone in a panic is a real bright and smart thing to do, right? (cough) :(

Ok girls so they are sending them to Mississippi... I wonder if our guys will be treated like others in Mississippi... congel visiting is allowed in that state... Dang if that was the case... too bad mike is max, I would drive to the end of the world for that one. :)

vicki

LOL Vicki - Hmmm...I haven't even thought about the "tonk houses" here in Mississippi. That would be very cool!

Conjugal visits in Mississippi? At all prisons or just some???

Oh gee... if he WERE to get transferred to such a place... you gals can expect a wedding announcement shortly thereafter... LOLOLOLOL!!!! :D

Seriously tho, tho I doubt he'll get transferred no matter how many they wind up sending to MS in the future (he's medium but on the high end of medium security), you're not going to hear me complain too much if he gets moved to either of the ones in Tallahatchie or LeFlore counties... they're only like two hours or less away! With my luck tho I figure he'd get sent to the one that's dang near in LA/TX...

Conjugal Visits



Conjugal visits are offered to inmates under the care of MDOC. However, there are strict guidelines and procedures. Conjugal visits are only allowed to eligible legally married inmates (married is defined as the union of a man and a woman). The spouse of the inmate must provide proof of marriage. Common law marriages are not considered legal marriages as defined by MDOC, and therefore do not qualify for conjugal visit privileges.

Inmates that qualify for conjugal visits are those that are "A" or "B" custody (minimum custody levels) and maintain an acceptable level of good behavior. In addition, eligible inmates cannot have a rule violation report (a report that is written after a rule is broken such as fighting, swearing, etc.) in the last 6 months.

Inmates that are identified to be at risk of transmitting HIV or any other sexually transmitted disease (syphilis, gonorrhea, etc.) to a non-infected person are not eligible for conjugal visits. Inmates are given one hour for a conjugal visit and provided with the following items: soap, condoms, tissue, sheets, pillowcase, face towel and a bath towel. The inmate and spouse are searched before and after each visit for security reasons.

Originally posted by danielle
Conjugal visits are offered to inmates under the care of MDOC.

Wow - this is way off topic, but I think that the ones housed in Mississippi wouldn't qualify, since they aren't actually under the care of the MDOC. :(

Ah poop, that figures (minimum only). OK, guess I won't be creating my bridal gift registry just yet... ;)

That whole one hour thing kinda sucks too... (I know, that's better than nothing)... :)

Originally posted by danielle

Wow - this is way off topic, but I think that the ones housed in Mississippi wouldn't qualify, since they aren't actually under the care of the MDOC. :(

I think you're right, but that brings up an interesting (and on topic) topic that has crossed my mind about all these transfers... and that is how they manage the whole state rules thing. Like, what if a certain mail item is allowed by the Alabama DOC but not the MS DOC (or vice versa)? Or there's hundreds of other possibilities there. I'm guessing that most rules are facility-effective so ALL inmates at a MS DOC facility would be subject to that facility's rules for mail... but then, if they do that, then it would seem to me like it would be unfair to not allow the Alabama inmates conjugal visits if the MS ones are getting them in that facility. I don't know, it's a quandary...

There's a new PTO member - JimD who has had a sister-in-law moved to Louisiana. Perhaps he could shed some light on this? It is a mess to say the least!!!

I find sending inmates out of state to privately run facilities the joke of the century.

The state of Arizona sends some of its inmates to Texas. The state of Hawaii in turn sends inmates to Arizona. Tell me, where is the logic in this?

When inmates here in Hawaii are sent to facilities on the mainland they loose nearly all contact with their families and friends. Visits and phone calls become a thing of the past. As beautiful as the Pacific Ocean is, it becomes an even greater barrier than any razorwire will ever be.