Prison reform in Alabama is in the pipeline. How close we are depends on who you are talking to.
Some think prison reform will happen in a special session. Some think it will happen next year. Others think we aren’t quite there yet.
The gist of this is pretty simple, though. Everyone knows that a majority of Alabamians are not content with the status quo, and no one wants a mass release of prisoners.
Well, almost no one.
The head of the Alabama Democratic Party, State Representative Christopher England (D-Tuscaloosa), tweeted the following stream of consciousness out:
Let’s talk pardons. Here are the numbers from Nov. 2019 to June 2021.
White Applicants? 601 granted, 1565 denied.
Black Applicants? 313 granted, 1792 denied.
Hispanic Applicants? 2 granted, 15 denied.
Of the 916 pardons that were given 65% of them went to White Applicants pic.twitter.com/vku8INcaMu
— Chris England (@RepEngland70) August 28, 2021
Yellowhammer News’ Jeff Poor accurately asked for a clarification of what England’s point was:
.@RepEngland70 Are you saying Gwathney is basing these decisions on the race of the applicant, or are you saying she should take into account the race of the applicant regardless of merit to achieve a racial balance?
You've never been specific about your complaint. https://t.co/q5SLB6FTb1
— Jeff Poor (@jeff_poor) August 28, 2021
Should we let more out? Let more black people out? Let more white people out?
What is he advocating to solve this?
Nothing?
Apparently, England had no response.
But his point is clear. We can’t build prisons, so we need to let people out.
I know I say this all of the time but new buildings alone will not fix this. We should focus on getting rid of Habitual Offender, making parole recommendations presumptive, creating an additional parole board, and creating an entirely different process for pardons.
— Chris England (@RepEngland70) August 28, 2021
Some so-called journalists have made it clear that building more prisons is completely the wrong way to go.
Alabama does not "need" new prisons to address constitutional violations, which are more than just DOJ "concerns," they are documented by years of data. But DOJ explicitly says new construction alone will not solve the problems of overcrowding & corruption. #accuracy pic.twitter.com/mhUlJLcuAs
— Beth Shelburne (@bshelburne) August 29, 2021
The line through the text of the Yellowhammer News story makes it clear that Shelburn knows the solution.
What is it?
No clue because she won’t say.
Some people continue to fixate on the “just let people out, and that will solve this issue” pipedream of liberal do-gooders, but it has been made clear multiple times that this will not be happening.
New prisons are going to get built. The question yet to be answered seems to be whether the money comes from COVID-19 relief dollars or some other source.
The media and their Democrats appear hell-bent on removing themselves from this conversation completely or refusing to see the reality in front of them.
Maybe that is just a way to clear the path for the feds to take over the whole system and mandate changes that they think will be more to their liking in the end.
Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 5-9 AM weekdays on WVNN and on Talk 99.5 from 10 AM to noon.
