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| Some Alabama female prisoners may change Louisiana lockups |
| By The Associated Press |
| Published: 10/06/2003 |
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Women prisoners from Alabama may soon be transferred from one Louisiana private prison to another to get them closer to home and to give them better access to jobs and classes. Alabama Department of Corrections officials toured a private prison in Newellton in northeast Louisiana in preparation for possibly transferring 310 female prisoners currently housed in southwest Louisiana. Prison officials said the Newellton facility is about three hours closer to Alabama. The Newellton prison has 388 beds and has been empty for about a year. The Legislature approved a bill in the recent special session to expand the Alabama Board of Pardons and Parole so the state can parole an additional 5,000 to 6,000 prisoners. The paroles would ease prison overcrowding and make it possible to return about 2,000 men and women prisoners from private facilities in Mississippi and Louisiana to Alabama. Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett said prison officials still hope to be able to return the out-of-state prisoners to Alabama. But in the meantime, he said the move would get the prisoners closer to home and make it easier for relatives to visit. In April, Alabama began transferring women prisoners 480 miles away to the Southwest Louisiana Correctional Facility to comply with a federal court order to relieve crowding at Tutwiler prison in Wetumpka, Alabama's only women's prison. Attorneys with the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights, whose lawsuit resulted in the court order, criticized the out-of-state transfers as unfair because the distance weakens ties with family members. Critics also say the private prison's lack of programs creates idleness and weakens prisoners' chances to show productivity before the parole board. Corbett said the move could improve that situation by opening up classes and maintenance and mess hall jobs within the prison. Meanwhile, state officials say the plan to parole the additional nonviolent prisoners may not do much to ease overcrowding, but they hope it will show the state is making a good faith effort to comply with two court orders concerning prison overcrowding. The two court orders caused the prison system to send some inmates to Mississippi and Louisiana. Alabama's inmate population is about 28,000 in a system designed to house 12,387 and Corbett said the system's problems won't be solved simply by more paroles. |
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