Coalition Outlines Recommendations to Reduce Recidivism

Alabama’s Criminal Justice System Unfairly Punishes Low Income, People Suffering from Mental Illnesses

Montgomery, Ala— Today the Alabamians for Fair Justice Coalition announced recommendations to reduce recidivism in Alabama’s criminal justice system, including eliminating cash bail and excessive fees associated with diversion and re-entry programs, providing greater services to treat mental health and substance abuse, and using alternatives to incarceration, like citations instead of arrests for certain misdemeanors.  The recommendations were sent as a letter ahead of today’s prison reform study group meeting at the Alabama State House.     

“Alabama has one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation and punishments unfairly impact low-income and those suffering from substance use issues,” said Shay Farley, senior policy council with the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization part of the Alabamians for Fair Justice Coalition.  "In order to reform the criminal justice system, we must address a system of wealth-based detention, look at one’s ability to pay when assessing fines and fees, and treat substance use as a public health issue, not a crime.”

"It's past time for Alabama to stop relying on jails and prisons for mental health care services where community-based treatment is safer, more effective, and less costly," said Foster Cook, Director Emeritus of the Substance Abuse Programs at UAB and UAB's TASC Program, which administers drug courts, mental health courts, and Community Corrections programs for Jefferson County.  "Proper funding of community-based mental health services is an important step toward reforming Alabama's prison system."  

"In Alabama, people are caged, not because they have been found guilty of a crime, but because they don't have money to make bail,” said Brock Boone, staff attorney for ACLU of Alabama. “Wealth-based detention denies most people a fair chance at justice, disproportionately affecting Black people and other people of color. Those who lack financial resources to afford bail are seeing their constitutional protections violated, including their rights to due process, equal protection under the law, and protection under the Eighth Amendment."  

The coalition’s recommendations include:

Jails: Alabama’s jails are overcrowded, and people arrested under the state’s cash bail system for misdemeanors, property crimes, and drug crimes are often stuck in jail for long periods of time -- not because they are considered dangerous -- but because they are too poor to post bail. Keeping someone in jail – even for a few days - can have devastating consequences to a person and his or her family.

We recommend:

• Eliminate bail. It perpetuates a wealth-based justice system.

• Limit pretrial detention to people that pose a risk to public safety.

• Implement services like text- messaging reminders to encourage court attendance.

• Increase the use of citations instead of arresting people for violations of local ordinances and certain Class C misdemeanors.

Mental health and substance use treatment: There are extremely high levels of drug addiction and people with mental illnesses among incarcerated people. Not addressing this fact contributes to overcrowding of jails and prisons, over incarceration of poor and vulnerable people and chronic recidivism. When possible, Alabama should move toward treating substance abuse and mental illness as a public health issue and not criminal justice issue.

We recommend:

• Alabama provide for routine screening, assessment, and referral of people with mental illness and substance abuse during pre-trial, sentencing and post incarceration.

• In lieu of incarceration, expand funding for treatment through the Department of Mental Health.

• Ensure no person is denied diversion to treatment due to inability to pay.

• Expand the use of Mental Health and Drug Courts.

Pretrial diversion and Community Corrections: Alternatives to incarceration are available in Alabama, but these programs lack uniformity, common standards and meaningful oversight. Costs and accessibility vary widely from county to county, and the programs rely on user fees, contributing to a two-tiered justice system where defendants with resources have access to alternatives and lower-income people are sent to jail or prison.

We recommend:

• Adequately fund the existing diversion and community corrections programs and eliminate user fees to remove income disparities.

• Codify oversight, roles and standards to ensure programs are uniform, productive, and compliant.

• Establish statewide guidelines regarding drug tests and eliminate drug test user fees.

• Require Alabama’s Department of Corrections (ADOC) to be held accountable for Community Corrections programs.

• Mandate diversion programs look at ability to pay, including DA Diversion, Drug Court, and Court Referral to make sure the programs are unbiased and indigent individuals have fees waived. See this investigative piece on Alabama’s community corrections programs. 

Reentry: Most individuals who have served their time leave prison with enormous court debt, including restitution, court costs, fines and fees associated with the underlying conviction. Failure to pay this debt can result in re-arrest, parole revocation, or an additional 30% collection fee. There are clear public safety risks, as research has shown that almost four in ten (38.3%) admitted to having committed at least one crime to pay to their court debt, including almost one in five (19.6%) whose only previous offenses were traffic violations. 

We recommend:

• Ensure that fines and costs are within one’s ability to pay and imposed over a reasonable time period and waive amounts that a person cannot afford to pay.

• Allow at least six months in the community before people must begin paying fines and restitution.

• Fully fund the judiciary so that judges, DAs, and the indigent defense system are not reliant on fees to keep operating.

• Credit time served toward certain financial obligations. 

• Establish services within ADOC for people re-entering to have health care coverage and bridge medications.

• Make parole reporting easier, including having weekend or evening reporting hours and using technology to make probation and parole reporting less time-consuming.



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Alabamians for Fair Justice is a coalition made up of formerly incarcerated individuals and family members of those currently or recently serving time in Alabama’s prisons, advocates, and civil justice organizations.  

Three Deaths in Two Weeks at Donaldson Correctional Facility Show Alabama’s Prison Crisis

Statement of Pastor Kenneth Glasgow, Founder, National President of The Ordinary People Society (TOPS) on behalf of the Alabamians for Fair Justice coalition:

“The deaths of three men—Marco Dewayne Tolbert, Steven Davis and Elvin Burnseed— in two weeks at Donaldson Correctional Facility are disturbing, no matter what the circumstances, but this has been an ongoing problem and until we do something about it, it will continue. Too many lives have been lost just since the U.S. Department of Justice’s report in April and it is imperative that lawmakers act to address this crisis. These are human beings. Speaking as a formerly incarcerated person, I know how important it is that we be seen as people. We are not offenders, we are not convicts, or felons. We are people.

This is about fair treatment and fair justice for all people. As courts ruled, and is stated in the DOJ report, the Alabama prison system suffers from excessive violence, incidents of extreme sexual torture, a pervasive drug problem, systematic overcrowding, a shortage of correctional officers, excessive use of force, and institutional corruption. These problems will not be solved without more transparency and they will not be solved through building billion-dollar buildings that provide cover for these problems.    

This is why Alabama’s criminal justice system needs true reform, looking at rehabilitation and mental health needs, sentencing reform for habitual offenders and minor drug offenses. We look forward to working with Alabama’s Legislature and Department of Corrections in ensuring Alabama’s prisons are a safe and transformative environment.

While the investigations into these most recent deaths run their course, we hope the results will be completely transparent and provide some insight to help address the continuing crisis in Alabama’s prison system.”

Statement of Sandy Ray, mother of Steven Davis, who died due to injuries sustained from correctional officers at Donaldson Correctional Facility: 

“Tell Governor Ivey she will speak to me. She will tell me what happened to my son. Her prison reform is not working. I had to do a closed casket because they beat my son so badly. Maybe she needs to let these hurt families run the prisons. She needs our input. They killed my baby. Tell me why my son is dead.”

PHOTOS ATTACHED

Photo from Steven Davis's funeral in Uniontown, AL , Thursday, October 10, 2019

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Alabamians for Fair Justice is a coalition made up of formerly incarcerated individuals and family members of those currently or recently serving time in Alabama’s prisons, advocates, and civil justice organizations.  

Alabama’s Prison Crisis Needs Sentencing Reform

Governor Ivey’s New Billion Dollar Buildings Won’t Solve State’s Excessive Incarceration Rates, New Coalition Outlines Sentencing Recommendations 

Montgomery, Ala. — Today the Alabamians for Fair Justice Coalition announced recommendations for reforming Alabama’s criminal justice system, including modifying sentences for marijuana, controlled substances and property theft, reforming the Habitual Felony Offender Act, and redefining “violent offenses” to include only offenses involving a serious threat or physical injury.   

This announcement came ahead of the third meeting of the Governor's prison reform study group, who gathered at the State House to discuss sentencing data and policy.

Alabama currently has at least 500 people serving life without parole sentences for non-homicides under the state’s habitual offender law.  This accounts for over 11,000 years of combined punishment for crimes that would not result in a life without parole sentence today.   For example, two African-American women, Valrise Bendolph and Latoria Muhammad, both had young children when they received life without parole sentences for robberies and thefts.  

“Alabama has one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation because punishments are often excessive,” said Carla Crowder, Executive Director of Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. Crowder recently represented Alvin Kennard, a man who was sentenced to life without parole in Alabama for a $50 robbery at a bakery.  

At 22 years old, Kennard received the mandatory sentence under the habitual offender law because he had three prior nonviolent felonies on his record. Under today’s sentencing standards, Kennard would have been eligible for a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 21 years. He served 36 years in prison. In August, a judge resentenced Kennard to time served.  He went on his first job interview Monday.

“Prison is loaded with people like me,” said Mr. Kennard, 58. “People who haven’t hurt anyone don’t deserve to be away all their life with no chance at parole. Many of them didn’t commit any violence. I’ve seen men change in prison and if lawmakers would do away with the habitual offender act, many older people like me could get released.” 

“Reforms need to ensure punishments are proportionate to the crimes committed, and applied equally to across economic, geographic, and racial lines,” said Father Manuel Williams, Pastor of Resurrection Catholic Church and Director of Resurrection Catholic Missions of the South, Inc. “Being poor, facing drug addiction or mental health problems cannot be a license for lifetime punishment.”

"I was sentenced to 114 years in prison for a non-violent drug offense," said Dena Dickerson, Executive Director of the Offender Alumni Association (OAA), a peer support group for people coming out of prison or at risk of incarceration. Dickerson served over a decade in Alabama prisons before she was finally paroled.

"We need to start looking at people in prison as individual human beings," said Dickerson. "Locking up people and forgetting about them isn't an option anymore. We need to restore hope in people who are broken and separated from their families. Just putting people away for decades only increases the trauma and heartache on families and communities." 

The coalition’s recommendations come six months after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) found Alabama’s men’s prisons to be in violation of the U.S. Constitution and the state “deliberately indifferent” to the dangers people face within Alabama’s prisons.  Despite the threat of a federal lawsuit, state leaders have made few changes since the DOJ’s initial findings letter was issued in April.    

The coalition’s recommendations include:

Reform the Habitual Felony Offender Act: 

Repeal or modifying the Act will reduce the numbers of “Life and Life Without Parole” sentences, significantly reducing long-term incarceration rates and incentivizing good behavior 

• Limit Life Without Parole to capital murder cases

• Require the triggering offense to be more serious than prior convictions

• Limit eligible convictions in the law to recent convictions, preventing crimes committed decades ago from applying

Modify marijuana laws: 

Alabama spends approximately $22 million dollars each year enforcing marijuana possession laws, draining law enforcement resources, including district attorneys, forensic labs, and courts. 

• Raise the level of marijuana required for a trafficking conviction above 2.2 lbs. and remove the “violent” classification. This would reduce approximately 1,000 felony convictions each year

• End felony convictions in all possession of marijuana cases and establish a citation-only violation, punishable by a fine of not more than $150, for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana

• Set reasonable weight thresholds for sale/distribution

• Establish a reset period of five years for possession cases and expand expungement eligibility

Modify controlled substance laws: 

Drug addiction must be addressed as a public health crisis. Possession of a controlled substance is the most frequent felony conviction over the past five years, with 3,500 to 4,600 cases each year. 

• Reclassify unlawful possession of a Schedule II through V controlled substance as a misdemeanor or set a possession threshold (e.g. five or fewer pills) to trigger a felony charge

• Distinguish substances by schedule and provide lesser penalties for substances considered less harmful per schedule designation

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Alabamians for Fair Justice is a coalition made up of formerly incarcerated individuals and family members of those currently or recently serving time in Alabama’s prisons, advocates, and civil justice organizations.