Since the spring of 2010, Vera’s Center on Sentencing and Corrections has provided technical assistance to the Alabama Public Safety and Sentencing Coalition, with support from the Pew Center on the States and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Justice Reinvestment Initiative has provided Alabama policy makers with in-depth analysis of criminal justice data to determine why the prison population is increasing and identify opportunities for improving public safety.

Alabama has struggled with prison overcrowding for the past 25 years. From 2000 to September 2010, the state prison population in Alabama climbed 16 percent, reaching 25,395. During that time, corrections expenditures doubled. If policies were to remain unchanged, the anticipated prison population would reach 27,190 by 2015. Despite increases in the number of people incarcerated and the money spent on corrections, the recidivism rate in Alabama is alarming. More than 40 percent of those under the jurisdiction of the Alabama Department of Corrections have previously been sentenced to prison. Close to 30 percent of those currently incarcerated by the state were convicted of nonviolent drug or property offenses.

In 2010, capacity reached 190 percent. Community supervision services have also been stretched beyond their limit and in 2010 the offender-to-probation-officer ratio reached 185 to 1. Additional funding for a new prison or community supervision was not an option: the state was facing its most serious budget crisis in decades.

Alabama Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb, with the support of legislative leaders and the state’s executive branch, requested technical assistance from the Vera Institute of Justice and the Pew Center on the States to help develop statewide policies to manage the prison growth, reduce spending on corrections, and reinvest in strategies to increase public safety.

The Alabama Public Safety and Sentencing Coalition reflects a range of perspectives from throughout the criminal justice system; its members include representatives from the Board of Pardons and Paroles, district attorneys, victim advocates, defense attorneys, members of the judiciary, and legislators. The coalition’s goal is to develop a consensus-based legislative package to address the projected growth in Alabama’s prison population, generate savings, and reinvest in strategies to enhance public safety.

For more information about Vera's justice reinvestment work in Alabama, contact Alison Shames.