tutwiler prison

Inmates in the living quarters of Julia Tutwiler Prison For Women in Wetumpka, Ala. in this 2017 photo. A lack of medical and mental health care at Alabama's federal prisons is the subject of a federal lawsuit, filed in 2014. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)

Frank Knaack

By Frank Knaack, Executive Director of Alabama Appleseed; and Jordan Richardson, a Senior Policy and Research Analyst with the Charles Koch Institute

More than a decade ago, Texas lawmakers faced a choice. A joint legislative committee had warned that because of its skyrocketing prison population, the state would be required to spend nearly two billion dollars on the construction of up to 17,000 new prison beds. The state's conservative leadership decided to go a different route by making reforms to the criminal justice system and decreasing the number of people the state sent to prison. The reforms worked: 10 years later, overall crime rates have remained low and the state is slated to close its eighth prison in six years.

Jordan Richardson

For anyone following the criminal justice-related debates that have dominated the Alabama legislature during the past few sessions, the problem facing Texas' lawmakers over a decade ago sounds familiar. Granted, Texas lawmakers faced an increasing prison population, while Alabama's prison population has declined thanks to data-driven criminal justice reforms in 2013 and 2015. But, as Alabama's legislators are aware, the current decline in Alabama's prison rate will level off within a few years, leaving the state with a lingering prison overcrowding problem.

Alabama lawmakers are at the same fork in the road that their Texas colleagues faced a decade ago.

Option A is to build their way out of Alabama's prison overcrowding problem. This is the direction legislators have considered and decided against during the past two legislative sessions. We agree. This option, on the conservative end, would cost an estimated $800 million, would take five years to complete, and would lock in Alabama's reliance on incarceration for a generation to come. And, because of the length of time necessary to construct the new prisons, the plan would fail to address the acute overcrowding problem that currently plagues Alabama's prisons.

Option B is to build on the 2013 and 2015 criminal justice reforms. With a few simple improvements, Alabama can better protect public safety, reduce the burden placed on taxpayers, and create a fairer criminal justice system.

A lot of people in Alabama's prisons simply shouldn't be incarcerated. Here are some solutions:

Stop incarcerating those who have committed low-level crimes.

Invest in mental health and substance abuse services.

Reclassify marijuana possession as a civil offense.

Alabama should also give people a second chance to make an honest living. Alabama has approximately 21,000 people in its prisons and another 11,000 in its jails. The vast majority of those individuals will be released and return to their communities. To reduce the recidivism rate, the U.S. Department of Justice has identified three key elements to successful re-entry into our communities. One of those is helping people find and keep a job. By removing the criminal history check box from the initial employment application on public sector employment applications, Alabama would follow the lead of 30 states plus the District of Columbia that have removed this hurdle to employment placed in front of otherwise qualified applicants.

In recent years, Alabama has embraced a number of data-driven criminal justice reforms. We can do even more. Alabama's leaders have an opportunity to create a fairer criminal justice system, protect public safety, and lower the burden on taxpayers. We urge them build on their previous reforms.