MONTGOMERY, AL - A state judge ruled Thursday that Alabama prison system Commissioner Richard Allen must remove 185 state inmates from backlogged county jails by May 31 or face jail himself.

Circuit Judge William Shashy also ordered the commissioner to remove another 200 state inmates from backlogged jails by June 27 and have the entire backlog cleared by Sept. 5. Violation of either of the two deadlines would also result in possible jail time for Allen, Shashy wrote in the order addressing the 15-year-old inmate backlog case.

State inmates are supposed to be removed from county jails within 30 days after sentencing, but the state year after year has failed to do so. The order said 585 inmates were jailed in violation of the order as of April 28.

"The Court cannot and will not turn a blind eye to violations of state law," Shashy wrote. "The standard for accepting state inmates is clear in the law, and this Court has given the Commissioner a definite and generous time limit in its prior orders."
The order says the Department of Corrections will immediately accept 75 state inmates per week. Also, counties and sheriffs will be allowed to send up to 200 more inmates to the department.

Allen was appointed by Gov. Bob Riley in February to run the corrections department. During an April court hearing about the backlog, he pointed to sentencing reforms and new approaches to reducing the number of state inmates in county jails.

Department spokesman Brian Corbett declined comment until officials had an opportunity to read the order. Attorney Ken Web, who represents the counties in their suit against the prison system, was not immediately available for comment. Shashy criticized the department's handling of the issue, saying the department is actually doing less with more resources.

He noted that despite a budget increase of more than $117 million since the Department of Corrections was held in contempt in July 2001, the state was housing fewer inmates as of March 2006. The order shows that the state was housing 23,800 inmates in July 2001 and the department was short 393 beds for these inmates.

By March 2006, according to the order, 23,645 inmates were being housed even though 1,569 beds were empty.

"If the sheriffs did as the Commissioner is doing, the criminal justice system in our state would collapse," Shashy wrote.