Alabama top stories in brief
- The President of the Alabama Grocers Association, Ellie Taylor, sent out an opinion article to various news outlets that supported the removal of Alabama’s grocery tax. “Daily, grocers witness hardworking Alabamians unable to purchase the food that they need,” wrote Taylor. She said removing the tax could save families $40 a month and $480 a year, which she believes could have a significant impact on lower income families.
- Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville has placed a hold on Department of Defense promotions in response to the DoD’s policy that gives service members leave and travel allowances for “non-covered reproductive health care,” which includes abortion. The hold does not stop the promotions being made, but means that they would have to be taken to the senate floor, slowing down the process. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a Senate committee last Tuesday that the hold on the over 150 nominees will have a negative impact on U.S. military readiness. Tuberville has since said that he will work things out with Austin, though he has said he will not move from his current position.
- At least 36 people have died in Alabama Department of Correction Facilities so far this year. There were a total of 12 reported deaths each in January and February and 12 reported in March as of last Wednesday, according to information gathered by Alabama Political Reporter and Alabama Appleseed.
- A working group, formed from state and local agencies to review the response to the fire at a landfill in Moody, is now accepting comments from the public regarding the response to the fire. The fire burned for months before the Environmental Protection Agency took over management of the situation. The EPA said it would turn the site back over to state and county officials in April.
Budget for Elmore County prison raised by 57%
A few weeks ago, the Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority approved an increase in the maximum amount that the state will spend on building a new prison in Elmore County. Previously, the maximum approved budget was $623 million, but it has now risen to $975 million.
The increase was originally reported by the Associated Press, who said when Republican Sen. Greg Albritton was asked about the situation, he pointed to inflation as the reason for the increased budget.
“Every construction project that we have that is ongoing is experiencing this same phenomenon,” Albritton said.
A vocal critic of the new prison construction, Alabama Appleseed tweeted a link to an Alabama Political Reporter article about inmate deaths this month and said “A new $1 billion dollar prison won’t fix this.”
They also tweeted links to an opinion article written by Alabama Media Group state political columnist, Kyle Whitmire. In his article, Whitmire harshly criticizes the decision to increase funds and the current prison system in general.
Whitmire said, “the state will spend at least $243,750 per inmate bed. That’s about $100,000 more than a typical Alabama home.”
Another criticism of note Whitmire made was that since the prison is being constructed to replace some of the current prisons, it will not solve the issue of overcrowding in Alabama prisons.
When asked in February how the new prison will affect overcrowding in the prison system, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm told legislators that there would not be any net gain in the number of beds. This is because once the new prisons are opened, the old prisons will be closed. However, Hamm did say that there was a repurposing committee studying options for the use of some of the older prisons in the state. Currently, across all ADOC facilities, there are several thousand more prisoners housed than current facilities are designed to hold.
While there will be no increase in the number of beds, Hamm did tell legislators that the new prison designs will allow for better management of the population. The new layout for the prison will have more individual cells compared to the older prisons in the state, which are mostly made up of dorms.
It has also been said that the new prison will have more space for vocational and educational work.
The new prison in Elmore is one of two prisons that the state is planning to build. There currently is also a plan to build a new prison in Escambia County, but Hamm has said that the plans for the prison there are still being designed.
Originally, the total allocated budget for both projects together was 1.3 billion. No news has been released yet on whether there will also be an increase in costs for the Escambia County prison.
Our articles you might have missed
- The job of dealing with the aftermath of a natural disaster, like a tornado hitting a community, is a big one. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that it takes a lot of groups working together to help communities in need after major disasters. My article Cleaning up natural disasters in Alabama, takes a look at some of the work of the people who are on the front lines of offering support to those affected by disasters like tornadoes.
Important updates
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- Our new column, The Alabama Ramble, is coming out this Friday! The Alabama Ramble is a column published every two months from our Alabama travel columnist, Wesley Miller. Wesley travels the state to visit sites both famous and obscure, meet with locals and revel in the many adventures to be had here in Alabama. Here’s a sneak peak from the column.
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