February 20, 2006

Dear Editor:

In "Pitiful prisons," an editorial published 2/14/06, you say, "Pity Alabama citizens, too, if state officials continue to underinvest in corrections." The membership of the Association of Private Correctional and Treatment Organizations (APCTO) believe that Commissioner Campbell is right.

Let's examine some facts:

• Overcrowded prisons breed inmate-on-inmate violence and afford very little opportunity for effective treatment, education, and rehabilitation of the inmates.
• Failure to provide treatment services means that prisons become on-the-job training for criminals, which leads to high recidivism rates.
• Criminal behavior is costly to our courts, to our government and, most importantly, to the victims of crime.

Public-private correctional partnerships can help. Such partnerships:

• Can construct prison facilities faster, sometimes in as little as 12-15 months, and at about 10% to 25% less costly than public correctional services;
• Have operating costs that range from 6% to 12% less than comparable public correctional services;
• Provide a new source of capital funds so that state resources can be dedicated to schools and other public needs;
• Provide inmate services that are equal to or better than those provided by government operation; and

Sincerely,
 

 
Michael T. LoBue, Executive Director
Association of Private Correctional and Treatment Organizations
www.apcto.org

http://www.al.com/search/index.ssf?/base/opinion/113991220911330.xml?birminghamnews?oedit&coll=2

Pitiful prisons

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Donal Campbell's resignation last week as commissioner of the state prison system is yet another warning sign lawmakers can't keep ignoring prison problems.

Campbell announced he was leaving at the end of this month. During his three-year tenure, he has been shackled by the same leg irons that previous prison chiefs tried to break free from: state leaders' refusal to adequately fund prison operations.

Campbell had to spend too much time in court defending the prison system against state and federal lawsuits over the poor and crowded conditions of prisons. Despite his efforts, prisons remain in a bind.

Numbers tell the story. Alabama's prison system has more than 27,000 inmates - more than twice the number prisons were built to house. More than 2,000 other state prisoners sit in county jails because there's no place for them.

In Tennessee, where Campbell was prison commissioner when he was hired for the job in Alabama by Gov. Bob Riley, that state spent about $27,000 per inmate per year on its prisons. Alabama spends about $12,000 a year.

Campbell has asked for a doubling of the prison system budget to $589 million, including enough money to build two new prisons. Riley's budget, however, included only $318 million for the department, with the governor wanting to invest more in alternatives to incarcerations, such as drug treatment and community corrections, rather than more prison beds.

While the state is smart to put more money in alternative programs, those problems alone won't solve prisons' immediate crowding program.

Monday, the prison system announced it had signed a contract with a private prison in Louisiana to take 500 Alabama inmates at a cost of $29.50 per inmate per day. Prison officials hope they can move enough prisoners to free space for the 610 state prisoners who have been in county jails more than 30 days, in violation of a state court order.

Yet sending prisoners out of state is only a Band-Aid on a gaping wound.

Sentencing reform together with treatment and other alternative programs is the best hope to bring the prison population under control. But the state historically hasn't invested the money or effort to make those programs work.

Cynthia Dillard, assistant executive director of the Board of Pardons and Parole, says replacing Campbell won't be easy. "I pity the person who takes over the job."

She's right. It's one of the toughest jobs in state government. But pity Alabama citizens, too, if state officials continue to underinvest in corrections.