Alabama’s state prisons house more than 25,300 inmates but were designed to hold only 13,400. Severe overcrowding, therefore, represents a major challenge. Since maintaining an inmate costs more than $39 per day, it is also expensive for Alabama taxpayers.
The Department of Corrections has a plan to end overcrowding in a cost-effective way consistent with public safety.
A key goal is to reduce the percentage of released inmates who return to prison within three years, thereby reducing the prison population. In fiscal 2008, more than 11,000 individuals entered Alabama’s prisons; a similar number of inmates were paroled or reached the end of their court commitments. Since most of those entering prison will one day be released, increasing the number who readjust well to society will reduce prison admissions and population. This is a “win-win” for the individual and the community.
About 28 percent of those released from Alabama prisons return within three years. This is far below the national average, yet it shows the potential for large savings from improving the re-integration of those who leave prison.
The department engaged a company to build and operate a facility in Columbiana that provides counseling and substance-abuse treatment for up to 400 inmates at a time. The Alabama Department of Postsecondary Education provides vocational training there (about 60 percent of Alabama’s inmates have no high school degree). Graduates from this facility enter work-release programs before leaving the system altogether.
The department also has developed a Supervised Re-entry Program for up to 600 inmates to help them with activities like obtaining an ID, learning life skills, conducting job searches, getting a GED and re-integrating with their families. The Alabama Community Partnership for Recovery and Reentry (CPR) Network has been created, and the governor is leading the search for faith-based and other community partners. Its Web site — www.alabamacprnetwork.com — has a list of “80 Ideas for How Churches Can Help.”
Is your church interested in a service with such “win-win” opportunities?
EDITOR’S NOTE — Jim Williams is executive director for the nonprofit, nonpartisan Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama.
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