Alabama lawmakers seek more money for prison construction

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama lawmakers are seeking the ability to borrow an additional $500 million for prison construction after the price of the state’s new mega-prison rose to over $1 billion, complicating plans to build a second behemoth facility. The Alabama Legislature in 2021 approved a $1.3 billion prison construction plan to build two supersized prisons and renovate others as a partial solution to the problems in its violent and overcrowded prison system. However, the cost of building one prison, and the medical and mental health facilities that accompany it, rose to more than $1 billion, jeopardizing plans to build the second facility. The Justice Department noted in a 2019 report that dilapidated conditions were a contributing factor to what it called unconstitutional conditions but emphasized that, “new facilities alone will not resolve the contributing factors to the overall unconstitutional condition of ADOC prisons, such as understaffing, culture, management deficiencies, corruption, policies, training, non-existent investigations, violence, illicit drugs, and sexual abuse.” Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm has likened the new $1 billion facility to a small city because it has 54 buildings over 335 acres to house inmates and provide medical, mental health and substance abuse treatment.