County Commission | The Magazine April 2020 | Page 26

NEWS YOU CAN USE
that jail capacity and county budgets
would be further strained by creation
of the Class D felony because these
offenders would serve all their time in
county jails rather than State prisons.
As enacted, the Prison Reform
Act calls for the establishment of
State-operated regional facilities for
“dunks” to relieve some pressure on
county jails, but this requirement
remains unmet to this day.
The timely transfer of State
inmates from county jails to State
facilities has been a long-running point
of conflict. More than a decade ago,
the Alabama Supreme Court set a
30-day limit on the “waiting period”
for transfer, but the number of State
inmates in county jails past the limit
continues to climb every month.
ACCA’s latest research
publication, “Alabama’s Unresolved
Inmate Crisis,” reflects data from all
67 counties. It was initially released
in December 2019, and the expanded
version came out in January 2020. n
Get the Report
Download the complete UPDATED research publication,
“Alabama’s Unresolved Inmate Crisis,” at AlabamaCounties.org.
• FY2019 county data reveals the alarming impact of the
2015 Prison Reform Act.
• Combined jail and sheriff’s department operation costs for all 67
counties jumped another $30 million annually.
CONTACT 811 BEFORE YOU DIG.
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www.al811.com
26 | APRIL 2020
Safe Digging Is No Accident:
Contact 811 Before You Dig.