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| Say 'yes' to Alabama sentencing reform |
| By blog.al.com |
| Published: 05/23/2011 |
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ADDRESSING THE problem of crime doesn’t always mean more prisons bulging with inmates. A reasonable and responsible plan for how to cut down on Alabama’s prison population without putting violent offenders back on the street comes from Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb and the Alabama Public Safety and Sentencing Coalition. Chief Justice Cobb met last week with newspapers across the state to outline several bills that are pending before the Legislature. State senators, who are expected to take up the legislation Wednesday, should give them a thorough reading so they don’t wrongly characterize them as “soft on crime.” These bills are anything but “soft.” In fact, voting against this package could actually increase crime. The facts show that the longer nonviolent felony offenders stay in jail, the more likely they are to return to jail after released. Basically, Chief Justice Cobb wants Alabama to do a better job of helping nonviolent felony offenders re-enter society after prison. She’s talking about people convicted for criminal trespass, criminal mischief, drug possession and the like — not sex offenders or other hard-core criminals. She wants nonviolent offenders’ last six months behind bars turned into mandatory “supervised re-entry.” They would be drug-tested and made to pay fines, get counseling and go to work — something not all of them want. But with such intense supervision, Chief Justice Cobb predicts they’ll have a better chance of becoming productive citizens and staying out of prison. She credits the Pew Center on the States with funding the collection of data that is driving the initiative. Among the findings: Alabama has the fourth-highest imprisonment rate in the nation, yet its crime rate has dropped more slowly than the national average over the past decade. Read More. |
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