staton dormitory by julie bennett in 2013.JPG

A dorm in Alabama's Staton Correctional Facility in Elmore County in 2013.

(Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)

Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn told a legislative panel Tuesday that violence has doubled in five years in Alabama's prisons as the number of corrections officers has declined 20 percent.

Fewer recruits are signing up to become corrections officers because of the dangerous conditions, Dunn said.

Dunn gave the Joint Legislative Prison Committee statistics on violent incidents and staffing and updates on litigation and other issues affecting the overcrowded and undermanned prisons.

The commissioner talked to lawmakers about a proposal to borrow $800 million through a bond issue to build three men's prisons and one for women and close most of the existing facilities. The initiative would need approval by the Legislature.

Gov. Robert Bentley first proposed the plan early this year but it died during the last regular legislative session.

Bentley has said he may call a special session early next year to reconsider it.

Dunn said he would provide lawmakers with a study that backs up the assertion that the DOC could pay off the bond debt with savings associated with operating new prisons.

Dunn said a National Institute of Corrections analysis confirmed that the DOC can save enough by replacing the outdated facilities with new ones to pay the debt, about $50 million a year.

About 80 percent of the savings would come from reduced personnel and overtime costs, he said. He said new prisons would employ modern designs and technology to operate safely with fewer officers.

He acknowledged that the plan to cut personnel costs while fully staffing new prisons sounds counterintuitive.

"The reason you can do that is because using modern design and technology you can increase the safety and the security and the conditions in the prison without having to use the manpower intensive facilities that we currently have," Dunn said.

Dunn gave lawmakers charts, including one that shows the number of corrections officers has declined steadily over the last five years, from 2,332 in September 2011 to 1,863 this September, just 52 percent of the authorized staffing level.

The number of violent incidents has roughly doubled in five years, rising each year. There were 2,111 incidents of inmate-on-inmate violence in the last fiscal year, up from 1,108 in 2011. The number of inmate-on-staff violent incidents rose from 289 in 2011 to 522 in fiscal year 2016.

"Our inmates are becoming bolder because they understand that we're challenged with respect to our security apparatus," Dunn said. "They understand that there are not as many boots on the ground."

In September, corrections officer Kenneth Bettis, 44, died after being stabbed by an inmate at Holman prison in Atmore.

In March, the warden and a captain at Holman were stabbed during a riot in which inmates also started a fire.

St. Clair Correctional Facility has also been plagued by violence.

Dunn said the DOC is entering settlement negotiations over a federal lawsuit filed by the Equal Justice Initiative over unsafe conditions at St. Clair.

The commissioner said the DOC has increased security staff at Holman and St. Clair but that such measures are not a long-term solution.

In October, the Department of Justice announced a statewide investigation into Alabama's men's prisons.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson will begin a trial in another federal case that alleges mental health care in Alabama prisons does not meet constitutional standards.

A lawsuit concerning constitutional claims over the system's medical care is expected to go to trial next year.

Dunn gave lawmakers some good news on Tuesday, too.

The commissioner said the DOC is now in compliance with 37 of 44 requirements in an agreement with the Justice Department concerning Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women. Dunn said the DOC expects to be in full compliance by April.

And Dunn said the number of inmates in Alabama prisons is declining.

The number has dropped by about 1,000, to 23,328, over the last year. That's roughly 175 percent of the prisons' designed capacity of 13,318.

The number of inmates is projected to continue to drop, to 20,761, by the end of 2020, Dunn said.

The Legislature has passed sentencing guidelines and criminal justice reforms intended, in part, to gradually reduce the prison population, and those are making a difference, Dunn said.

Still, he said only so much can be done in the current facilities, which he said limit the kind of programs needed to rehabilitate and reduce the likelihood that inmates will return to prison. He said that's a key reason new prisons are needed.

"I think the most important point here is not the buildings," Dunn said. "The most important point is that this enables us to create and expand on our ability to rehabilitate inmates and lower our recidivism, which supports the criminal justice reforms that have been going on in this state, prepares inmates to go back into society so that they are productive citizens and don't come back into the department. And then, we believe that it will stabilize the rising cost of corrections."

Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, who has led prison reform efforts in the Legislature, said new prison space has to be part of the long-term plan. Ward said he does not expect sentencing and parole reforms to reduce the prison population much below 20,000.

Ward said he hopes the governor calls a special session to consider the prison plan, because he said the issue needs to be isolated. He also said critics of the plan have valid concerns that need to be addressed.

"That's a lot of money to borrow," Ward said. "And even though you're not taking on any new taxes or anything to pay for it, it's still a lot of money and you want to make sure it's going to be used in the right way."