A State of Emergency in Alabama: Prison Overcrowding
From Larry Edward Spencer, Alabama State University,
Montgomery, USA
Published on SAGE Open and available for free here: http://sgo.sagepub.com/content/2/3/2158244012460695.full
Larry Edward Spencer, Alabama State University, 915 S
Jackson Street, Montgomery, AL 36101, USA Email: larrylezlie@aol.com
Abstract:
This study examines the Alabama Department of Corrections
August 2009 Monthly Statistical Report and Fiscal Year 2008 Annual Report,
recent articles to explain the serious public safety issue of prison
overcrowding within the state of Alabama, lack of funding and correctional
staff, and increasing violence among inmates. It is imperative that the
stakeholders take a restorative justice approach to offenders who commit
nonviolent crimes or otherwise be prepared to release substantial numbers of
violent inmates due to federal court intervention, expanding parole, and other
types of early release programs. Violent offenders will pose a greater threat
to the community. Correctional workers continue to be exposed daily to the risk
of injury or death caused by severe prison overcrowding. The state could
experience additional financial hardship to rebuild a destroyed correctional
facility in an event of a riot. The excessive use of incarceration for
nonviolent offenders is one of the most important issues facing the state of
Alabama this decade.
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