A plan to overhaul Alabama’s prison system starting with two new 4,000-bed prisons now includes the closing of five of the state’s 13 existing men’s prisons.
St. Clair County Correctional Facility near Springville is the fifth men’s prison listed for shutdown in the bill lawmakers are considering during a special session that started Monday.
A repurposing commission will review the impact of each closing and consider new uses for the facilities.
St. Clair is a maximum security prison that opened in 1983 and that has a violent history. The Equal Justice Initiative has drawn attention to violence at St. Clair over the years, with a lawsuit in 2014 and a report citing four murders in seven months in 2018 and 2019.
Other prisons slated to close are Elmore Correctional Facility and Staton Correctional Facility in Elmore County, Kilby Correctional Facility in Montgomery County, and the Hamilton Aged & Infirmed Center in Marion County.
The House General Fund budget committee will consider the three-bill prison construction and funding package at 10 a.m. today. Committee approval would put the bills in position for a vote on the House floor Wednesday.
The House Judiciary Committee will consider two sentencing reform bills that were included in Gov. Kay Ivey’s call for a special session.
In an effort to help the communities affected by the prisons that would close, the legislation requires a repurposing commission to study the economic impact, possible new uses, and obligations to local governments and utilities. Gov. Kay Ivey created the commission last year through an executive order.
The new prisons would be in Elmore and Escambia counties, each holding up to 4,000 inmates. The Elmore County prison would have facilities for medical and mental health care, and addiction treatment and educational programs.
The prisons being replaced are much smaller. According to the Alabama Department of Corrections, the total designed capacity of the 13 existing prisons is 9,585 inmates. As of July, Alabama held 17,724 inmates in prisons and work centers designed for 12,115, the ADOC said.
Funding would come from a $785 million bond issue, $400 million in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan, a coronavirus relief bill, and $154 million from the state General Fund.
The state would use $19 million of the General Fund money to buy the Perry County Correctional Facility in Uniontown from the private prison firm GEO Group. The Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles plans to use the vacant, 700-bed prison to house and treat offenders who violate the terms of their probation or parole. The Perry County facility has previously been used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the state.
A second phase of the plan includes a new women’s prison in Elmore County to replace Julia Tutwiler Prison, which opened in 1942, and renovations to Donaldson Correctional Facility in Jefferson County, Limestone Correctional Facility in Limestone County, and one of the prisons in either Barbour or Bullock counties.
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