DeniseJ
07-23-2004, 09:00 AM
SPECIAL REPORT: Relieving overcrowding crisis creates new problems
Last Update: 7/21/2004 11:47:25 PM
Posted By:
(MOBILE, Ala) July 21-After some hard knocks and 8 years for 2nd degree burglary, Reggie Crear, paroled with Early Release in April, now, rebuilding his life. "They do you a favor by letting you out, so you've got to do yourself a favor by finding a job and staying away from the old life style."
A lifestyle of drugs and crime. Cynthia Dillard with the Alabama Board of Pardons and Parole says it's a lifestyle behind Alabama's prison overcrowding. "Drug addicts, alcoholics, chronically unemployed, having children that turn out the same way."
Since 1985, about 1,000 people enter prisons each year and stay...a system built for 13,000 holds more than 28,000. Crear knows first hand. "You're shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow, in the shower, at the sink, on the toilet."
To relieve pressure, and avoid a federal court order, Dillard says the doors opened. "Everybody serving a nonviolent offense, virtually, had a parole hearing during the past 16 months."
A room full of files and each represents someone on parole. Though they aren't crowding the prison system anymore they are crowding the room. Row after row, floor to ceiling files. In Alabama, 8,405 parolees, almost half, 4,110 paroled in the last year with Early release.
"I'm doing the best I can to support the clients I have." Parole officers like Monica Norwood are overburdened. "Between 100 and 150 clients, that's my ideal."
Before early release Norwood had 176 clients... after 213.
Chief Sam Cochran with the Mobile Police Department says officers feel overburdened too. "It's gone from being a state problem and now the state has passed that problem on to the cities."
A problem Baldwin County District Attorney David Whetstone says is passed on to victims."We can look in a victim's face and say if he pleads guilty to this, this is what we expect to happen and right now we can't do it."
A problem that Cochran says gets passed on to you."Additional victims are out there because of this early release that was not well thought out."
Additional parole officers hired, after the release. Drug treatment required, but there's a shortage of rehab centers across Alabama communities. And just now, the state looking at transition houses. Right now, just one for women... none for men. Dillard says she knows the state isn't doing enough, but there's no way to do more. "I think state government is doing an excellent job with the limited resources."
But Cochran says more needs to be done. On the front lines... there are no excuses, there's no "good enough". Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson says there can't be. "We risk life and limb, we are all at risk taking on the toughest elements of the community."
To help everyone make it, Crear says the toughest elements get some easy breaks after early release.. "They give you 2 or 3 strikes at least. Not right, they just don't send you right back."
Norwood says it takes at least 6 weeks from the time a parolee doesn't report to the time there's an arrest warrant. "It's a set date, they know when they have to report, it's real easy to lie."
And during that time, easy to get away with crime. Police aren't on the lookout for deliquent parolees. They're never even notified... the reason... it's not procedure. Whetstone says, "I think it's gonna be a constant struggle."
Struggles on the outside... struggles inside. Paroled 9 years into a 32 year sentence for stealing a car and escaping twice, Derrick Powell says it's a constant struggle to suppress criminal thoughts. "That's your survival instinct."
Powell says re-programming doesn't happen overnight. "If I would have done anything under 3 to 4 years I would come right back out to the street, done the same thing."
The very things police, the public and prosecutors like Tyson worry about with early release. "Your thieves and your druggies and your burglars, those are the ones that frustrate this community and rob it of its sense of security."
And rob parolees like Powell and Crear of a fair shot.
"It's a hard pill to swallow because you did all these years and you know you have made a change."
"I'm paying bills, I got married, trying to buy a house and a car, make it to work everyday."
Last Update: 7/21/2004 11:47:25 PM
Posted By:
(MOBILE, Ala) July 21-After some hard knocks and 8 years for 2nd degree burglary, Reggie Crear, paroled with Early Release in April, now, rebuilding his life. "They do you a favor by letting you out, so you've got to do yourself a favor by finding a job and staying away from the old life style."
A lifestyle of drugs and crime. Cynthia Dillard with the Alabama Board of Pardons and Parole says it's a lifestyle behind Alabama's prison overcrowding. "Drug addicts, alcoholics, chronically unemployed, having children that turn out the same way."
Since 1985, about 1,000 people enter prisons each year and stay...a system built for 13,000 holds more than 28,000. Crear knows first hand. "You're shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow, in the shower, at the sink, on the toilet."
To relieve pressure, and avoid a federal court order, Dillard says the doors opened. "Everybody serving a nonviolent offense, virtually, had a parole hearing during the past 16 months."
A room full of files and each represents someone on parole. Though they aren't crowding the prison system anymore they are crowding the room. Row after row, floor to ceiling files. In Alabama, 8,405 parolees, almost half, 4,110 paroled in the last year with Early release.
"I'm doing the best I can to support the clients I have." Parole officers like Monica Norwood are overburdened. "Between 100 and 150 clients, that's my ideal."
Before early release Norwood had 176 clients... after 213.
Chief Sam Cochran with the Mobile Police Department says officers feel overburdened too. "It's gone from being a state problem and now the state has passed that problem on to the cities."
A problem Baldwin County District Attorney David Whetstone says is passed on to victims."We can look in a victim's face and say if he pleads guilty to this, this is what we expect to happen and right now we can't do it."
A problem that Cochran says gets passed on to you."Additional victims are out there because of this early release that was not well thought out."
Additional parole officers hired, after the release. Drug treatment required, but there's a shortage of rehab centers across Alabama communities. And just now, the state looking at transition houses. Right now, just one for women... none for men. Dillard says she knows the state isn't doing enough, but there's no way to do more. "I think state government is doing an excellent job with the limited resources."
But Cochran says more needs to be done. On the front lines... there are no excuses, there's no "good enough". Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson says there can't be. "We risk life and limb, we are all at risk taking on the toughest elements of the community."
To help everyone make it, Crear says the toughest elements get some easy breaks after early release.. "They give you 2 or 3 strikes at least. Not right, they just don't send you right back."
Norwood says it takes at least 6 weeks from the time a parolee doesn't report to the time there's an arrest warrant. "It's a set date, they know when they have to report, it's real easy to lie."
And during that time, easy to get away with crime. Police aren't on the lookout for deliquent parolees. They're never even notified... the reason... it's not procedure. Whetstone says, "I think it's gonna be a constant struggle."
Struggles on the outside... struggles inside. Paroled 9 years into a 32 year sentence for stealing a car and escaping twice, Derrick Powell says it's a constant struggle to suppress criminal thoughts. "That's your survival instinct."
Powell says re-programming doesn't happen overnight. "If I would have done anything under 3 to 4 years I would come right back out to the street, done the same thing."
The very things police, the public and prosecutors like Tyson worry about with early release. "Your thieves and your druggies and your burglars, those are the ones that frustrate this community and rob it of its sense of security."
And rob parolees like Powell and Crear of a fair shot.
"It's a hard pill to swallow because you did all these years and you know you have made a change."
"I'm paying bills, I got married, trying to buy a house and a car, make it to work everyday."