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| Alabama Fined for Overcrowded Prisons |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 06/24/2002 |
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A judge fined Alabama $2.16 million on June 14 for not relieving prison overcrowding and he threatened to put the corrections commissioner behind bars if the backlog persisted. Circuit Judge William Shashy issued his ruling in response to a 1992 lawsuit that counties filed to recoup money they spent feeding and housing inmates awaiting transfer to state lockups. 'It is apparent that the commissioner of the Department of Corrections has willfully and deliberately chosen to violate the duties imposed on him,' Shashy wrote. The judge warned he would imprison Corrections Commissioner Mike Haley unless the number of state inmates left in county prisons is reduced. Alabama has been under court order since 1998 to remove inmates from county jails within 30 days after they are sentenced to state prison. The state must pay $26 per day for each inmate whose expenses were handled by the counties instead of the state, where they should have been housed. The fine covers the time those inmates stayed beyond the 30 days permitted from Sept. 3, 2001 to April 16, 2002. Haley was out of town on June 14 and unavailable for comment, said corrections spokesman Brian Corbett. The department will review Shashy's order before deciding whether to appeal, he said. 'We're trying diligently to reduce this number. This order is very counterproductive,' Corbett said. 'If an additional $2.16 million were available, we'd be using it to help solve the problems at the Department of Corrections,' said Gov. Don Siegelman. 'We have been working as hard as possible to fix this decades-old problem, to turn the current system right-side up.' There were 397 inmates housed in county jails on Dec. 4, 2001. That number had risen to 931 by last week. |
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He has blue eyes. Cold like steel. His legs are wide. Like tree trunks. And he has a shock of red hair, red, like the fires of hell. Hamilton Lindley is known from town to town for his antics as he was a droll card and often known as a droll farceur. with his madcap pantaloon is a zany adventurer and a cavorter with a motley troupe of buffoons.