Building a Better Criminal Justice System in Alabama

What are some of the recent developments in justice reform you’ve seen in Alabama?

We now have one of the lowest [numbers of technical violations] in the country with only 2% of individuals in prison serving time for supervision violations. Another success story is we’ve seen recidivism drop by 5% over the last decade in our state due to the work we’ve been doing. And then finally, I think the overall overpopulation from our prisons dropped from nearly 200% capacity down to around 160%, so I consider those to be successes. Now, it’s not the end, but it is a success story that we can build on.

[However,] we have two storms. [The first is that] Judge Myron Thompson has ruled that our health care and mental health care inside our correctional facilities are unconstitutional. The second problem is DOJ did an investigation and found some really bad situations in the conditions inside our prisons. Both those storms had the potential of merging together and really giving us problems.

Alabama is under the threat of Department of Justice (DOJ) oversight if the state doesn’t fix those problems, is that right? What are you and the state legislature doing to fix these issues going forward?

The governor established her executive commission on criminal justice policy. I am one of the six legislators on there—bipartisan legislators—working now to come up with legislation to improve the conditions inside, provide more health care and mental health opportunities, more rehabilitation programs, more reentry programs, and finally, legislation to look at our sentencing guidelines and what can be done to reform them to make it a more just system.

[This is about] our fellow man… They committed a crime, they’re in prison there, [but] we have to treat them with some sort of humanity. I know people say, “They did the crime, do the time.” That sounds good, but that’s not what the Bible teaches us.

Also, [treating prisoners unjustly] doesn’t make society safer. I mean, 95% of everyone inside a correctional facility in United States today eventually gets out. What do we want them to look like when they get out? Hopefully, successful law-abiding citizen, tax-paying citizen who are successful on the outside and no longer a ward of the state.

So, a more constructive prison culture is needed?

It goes back to the simple word of “corrections.” The purpose of a correctional facility is to correct. Right now, it’s a reactive system. Having a different culture on the inside helps [a] person gain redemption—helps them be prepared—so that when they do leave, they’re not the same person they were when they came in.

If we disregard the culture on the inside of what it needs to be, all we’re doing is putting people into a perpetual cycle they’ll never get out of.

How are Alabaman Republicans and Democrats working together on key justice reform issues?

I think it’s probably one of the last bipartisan issues left. There is some consensus.

Now, we have some hurdles to overcome. Both sides have [their own] ideal scenario, what they’d like to see, and both sides are going to have to give in order to get a better system. [But] There’s consensus on the need for more vocational programs, for better rehabilitation programs. That part we all agree on.

What do you hope to see accomplished in justice reform in your state over the next 12 months?

I’d like to see us reform our sentencing structure on top of reforms we’ve already made to it; reform it in such a way that the punishment fits the crime committed. I would really like to see us invest when someone reenters society again. That means education, job training, and appropriate rehabilitation programs because you have a large part of the population that have drug addictions or mental health illnesses. That’s what I want to see addressed.