The State of Alabama ranks third nationally in inmates serving life terms—which sounds great until you consider what we’re paying and what we’re getting in return.
If harsh prison sentences keep us safe, Alabama should be one of the safest states in the nation. Alabama ranks third nationally in the percentage of our inmates serving lifetime prison terms, according to a study recently released by the Sentencing Project.
Close to 5,100 of Alabama’s 29,000 inmates, 17.3%, were serving life sentences in 2008. Only California and New York have a higher percentage of lifers. A far greater proportion of Alabama’s life population, almost 28%, is serving a true life-without-possibility of parole with no chance of parole at all.
Disturbing is how disproportionately these lengthily prison sentences have gone to Blacks. Close to 66% of all Alabama lifers are Black; of those sentenced to life-without-parole, more than 68% are Black.
Alabama ranks, according to the Sentencing Project, first in the country for locking up Black juveniles for life. In Alabama, 84% is serving life terms for crimes they committed as juveniles are Black. It is apparent that Alabama has given up on poor kids and minority kids too quickly.
We do all of this at a considerable expense, and not just in lost human potential. Although Alabama spends less per inmate than almost every other state, it still spends plenty. This year, the Department of Corrections expects the total to be some $412 million. The political push for longer, fixed sentences helps drive up this number.
For starters, aging lifers develop health problems, and the cost of their treatment falls to the taxpayers. Secondly, the prison system has gone to great expense to find alternative housing for Alabama inmates. Our prisons contain twice as many inmates as they were designed to hold, and there’s a great juggling act that must be performed to squeeze in new comers without creating crowded conditions that put the Department of Corrections at risk of legal action and the department’s employees at risk of even worse.
Third, we can be tough on crime. This is not to say there aren’t people who, for public safety’s sake, need to spend the rest of their lives in prison. There are. Even the Sentencing Project, which advocates punishment other than prison, doesn’t argue this fact.
Alabama hasn’t always been smart in identifying who should be behind bars. There are too many stories of bicycle thief’s and drug offenders locked up for long sentences.
The situation got so far out of hand that even Alabama’s often shortsighted political leaders recognized it and took steps to help rid the prison system of some nonviolent lifers. The study from the Sentencing Project, however, suggests Alabama remains overly fond of lengthy prison terms and for what?
In 2008, Alabama was close to the top in the nation for locking people up and throwing away the key. Yet, according to “Crime State Rankings 2008,” Alabama was the country’s 15th most dangerous state.
Criminology Research Project, Inc. Executive Director, Edward Blackwelder, points out that in comparison with the general population 50% -80% of an institution’s population has a diagnoses of Antisocial Personality Disorder. This diagnosed inmate group is a subculture within a subculture and stands alone among the institutional population.
One must ask the reason for confining a person to prison. The choice is: punishment, protection of society or rehabilitation. The punishment aspect is the mere warehousing of the inmate as is the protection of society. Rehabilitation is, however, another question and another problem all to together. However, it must be pointed out that a majority of our prison population will eventually be released. What should the state attempt to assure the maximum potential of success for the inmate upon release? Presently, a successful answer seems to alude the Alabama Department of Corrections.
Does rehabilitation in the correctional environment work? In Alabama the recidivism rate is extremely high, somewhere around 76%. This percentage indicates that rehabilitation programs do not fulfill the sought after goals. If a business failed to make a sale 76% of the time it would not exist long. Nevertheless, only 24% of parolees remain crime free upon release. This is not a good indication that rehabilitation works, or, at least, Alabama does not have an effective series of programs that lead to a lowering of this high rate of inmate release where the inmate returns to prison for having committed another crime, generally within five years of release.
Alabama must come up with a solution to it’s prison problem. Is there a need to restructure sentencing at the judicial level, lowering the length of the sentence, or should alternative programs to incarceration be put into place?
The problem is not with the Alabama Department of Corrections. In fact, corrections is the only part of the make-up of the criminal justice system that has no discretion. Enforcement has this discretion in that it can and does make a decision as to whether to make an arrest. The Courts have the discretion, to a degree, in determining a sentence. Corrections, on the other hand is forced to accept what is sent to them from the Courts, no discretion at all.
The people of Alabama cannot continue to demand long prison terms without adequate funding to build, maintain, staff and operate additional prisons. This is just the way it is.
Think about what you have read, come up with an opinion as to what incarceration is mean to be and, if you can, decide upon a solution to Alabama’s prison dilemma. We can no longer have our cake and eat it, too.
Many years ago the state legislature was put on notice that, eventually, the present prison crisis would present itself. Nothing was done. Now, there is no time for “putting off.” This eventuality is not a present nightmare that will not go away. Action must be taken and soon. If not, I can for see a Court ordering the release of inmates with dangerous records. The people of Alabama won’t like this but, at the same time, do not consider support of our Department of Corrections a high priority.
SUMMARYOF STATISTICS FOR ALABAMA
Overall number of inmates serving life and life-without-parole sentences: 5,087
Percentage of all lifers who are Black: 65.7
Total number sentenced to life without parole who are Black: 68.2
Total number sentenced to life for crimes as juveniles: 121
Percentage of juveniles sentenced to life who are Black: 84.3