An Alabama judge refused to dismiss a jail overcrowding case Thursday and, despite a new prison commissioner's presence, offered a severe assessment of why the backlog of state inmates in county jails has dragged on for 15 years.

"You folks aren't doing your job," Montgomery County Circuit Judge William Shashy said at a contempt hearing.

Shashy said he would issue an order in two to three days on whether the Alabama Department of Corrections should be held in contempt for failing to comply with a December 2002 court order requiring state inmates to be moved from county jails to state prisons within 30 days.

Richard Allen, appointed by Gov. Bob Riley in February to run the corrections department, has pointed to sentencing reforms and new approaches to reduce the backlog. But Shashy asked blunt questions and indicated he had little patience with the continued backlog.

"What's this going to do for us today?" Shashy asked when Allen introduced an official to the judge.

When another official couldn't explain how a computer system would reduce inmates, Shashy responded: "I don't know why you're talking to me then."

Corrections officials said the number of state inmates in county jails for more than 30 days has dropped from 827 in November to 496 as of Friday. They also said sentencing reform legislation would reduce the prison population by 500 inmates in the first year, 1,000 by the second year and 3,000 inmates by the fifth year.

Other measures include converting work release centers into sites that can hold inmates near their release date, reviewing inmates for work-release programs and creating more inmate beds. Attorney Ken Webb, who represents the counties in their suit against the prison system, told the judge he is pleased with the efforts made by the corrections department, but more can be done.

"We just don't think it's enough," he said.

Webb said in Talladega County more than 100 inmates are sleeping on the floor. "It's just a matter of you do what you have to do," he said.

Prison system attorney Scott Rouse said Talladega is a worse-case scenario. "All we hear from the plaintiffs is, 'That's not enough,'" he said.

Rouse asked the judge to dismiss the case, saying 15 years of legal proceedings haven't resulted in a standard for the prison system to follow. He said the department should work with the individual counties and lawmakers to resolve the matter. Shashy, denying the motion, said he would "love to get rid of this case" but had to follow the law.