Something just short of miraculous is happening in Alabama’s prisons. The number of incarcerated young people has been cut in half since 2005. Buried within statistical reports on the Alabama Department of Corrections, the numbers are clear: In 2005, prisons housed 9,827 people ages 15 to 30, or 36% of the ADOC population. By March […]

This year, state prison officials are seeking a $42 million budget increase, which would push general fund prison spending to over half a billion dollars for the first time. Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn made his case for more money at recent legislative budget hearings, where the specter of federal takeover of Alabama’s unconstitutional prisons hovered. […]