|
|
| Judge: Ala. Women's Prison Overcrowded |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 12/04/2002 |
|
A federal judge ruled Monday that Alabama's prison for women is overcrowded, understaffed and unsafe and gave state officials four weeks to come up with a plan to solve the problem. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson called the Tutwiler prison for women a 'ticking time bomb.' Thompson's ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by the Southern Center for Human Rights on behalf of 15 inmates at Tutwiler. The prison near Wetumpka was built in the 1940s to hold a maximum of 364 inmates and now houses 1,017. 'The situation there has become so volatile with people living in large open dormitories, extremely idle with almost no supervision at all. It is a recipe for violence,' said Tamara Serwer, an attorney for the Southern Center for Human Rights. The judge gave Gov. Don Siegelman and prisons Commissioner Mike Haley until Dec. 30 to submit a plan to relieve the 'unconstitutionally unsafe conditions.' Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett said Haley was studying Thompson's ruling and 'will come up with a plan and submit it.' He said prison officials might revise a plan that is already in place to deal with overcrowding in general in the prison system. A spokesman for Siegelman, Mike Kanarick, said the governor will come up with a plan that includes alternative punishment for non-violent prisoners. Thompson's ruling says that lack of money is not an excuse for the overcrowding at Tutwiler, but Corbett said 'the bottom line is it does come down to adequate funding.' State prison officials also face an order from a state judge that they transfer all state prisoners from county jails to state prisons within 30 days of sentencing. |
advertise
|
privacy policy
|
add URL
|
about us
|
terms/disclaimer
|
contact us
|
join our team
|
help
There is a lot of information on this website about inmates and prison guards. I didn’t realize what was going on in our prison system until I discovered this website. Similarly, I didn’t understand litigation finance until I read more from Hamilton Lindley who is a litigation finance expert based in Texas.