FROM THE COVER
Prison Reform Progress Report
© Can Stock Photo / albund
Officials from the Alabama
Department of Corrections and the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles provided a progress report on reform implementation to county officials at the ACCA Annual Convention in August . In short , it is working . “ Our inmate population is going down , and it ’ s going down very significantly ,” said Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn . “ In fact , Alabama is experiencing the largest percentage decrease in their inmate population of any state in the nation .”
With offenders who are not housed at a DOC facility but are still subject to supervision , there are positive trends as well , said Meredith Barnes , chief legal counsel at the Board of Pardons and Paroles . Technical violations are down , and “ we ’ ve seen a decrease in the revocation rate on both the parole and probation front , very significant on the parole front ,” she said . “ That ’ s a good thing because it is impacting positively the Department of Corrections ’ prison population .”
Alabama legislators passed the sweeping Justice Reinvestment Act in 2015 . Often referred to simply as “ prison reform ,” the law has had significant impacts on both the
Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles and county jail operations . Counties have been particularly affected by changes to community corrections and new utilization
of county jails for intermediate sanctions – called “ dips ” and “ dunks ” – for probation and parole violators .
There is no doubt it is good news when a prison system that has ranked among the most overcrowded in the nation can report fewer inmates . In five years , overall inmate population is down about 4,500 individuals , which works out to a 30-point decline in overcrowding , Dunn said .
The 2015 reforms were driven in large part by increasingly intense budget pressure on the state ’ s General Fund coupled with the possibility that subpar conditions
Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn , left , and Meredith Barnes , chief legal counsel for the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles , updated county leaders on the future of Alabama ’ s prisons . could lead to federal takeover of the state ’ s system . Timing was critical because , as Dunn pointed out , in the last decade or so there is a new wealth of information about effective strategies and programs . Where reform was once about good or promising ideas , now consideration is reserved for evidence-based and data-driven policies .
In his remarks , Dunn put a great deal of emphasis on enhanced
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