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| Sports, TV Help Prisons, Ala. Prison Chief Says |
| By Birmingham News |
| Published: 04/24/2003 |
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Alabama Prison Commissioner Donal Campbell says he has no problem with sports, games and even TV for inmates, because such activities help keep order in the prisons. Asked about conveniences being provided to 70 female inmates shipped April 13 to a private prison in Louisiana, Campbell said such activities are useful management tools. 'I think TV should be allowed in prisons,' Campbell said at a briefing recently by Patrick LeBlanc, president of LCS Corrections Services Inc. LCS owns and operates South Louisiana Correctional Center in Basile, La., where Alabama women inmates are being housed. LeBlanc said the Basile prison provides facilities for basketball, volleyball, softball, track and a variety of board games and conveniences to help keep inmates occupied. 'From an operations viewpoint, they are absolutely essential,' LeBlanc said. Campbell expressed a similar view. 'I consider activities provided as part of the management of the prison,' he said. 'We should not and must not let inmates sit there 24 hours a day in idleness.' Brian Corbett, information officer for the Department of Corrections, said Alabama prisons also have TV, though some of them depend on an antenna instead of cable. In prisons where cable TV is provided, the costs are paid by nonprofit organizations, Corbett said. Campbell said the state plans to move additional female inmates to the Louisiana prison from Tutwiler Prison for Women, which a federal judge has ruled to be crowded, understaffed and unconstitutionally unsafe. |
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