Alabama top stories in brief
- Three of the companies seeking licenses from the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission filed separate lawsuits against the commission last month. The lawsuits allege that problems with the online submission portal led to their submissions being rejected. There was a file size limitation of 10 megabytes on the portal that the commission used to accept applications, and none of the three companies were made aware of this. A judge ordered the commission to consider the applications of Med Shop Dispensary and TheraTrue Alabama. Another company, RedBud Remedies, had their complaint denied by a judge.
- A poll conducted by the Alabama GOP found that 83% of voters supported cutting the state’s tax on groceries. The same poll also said 48% of voters supported receiving rebate checks, and 82% of voters would prefer tax cuts over a rebate check. A bill was introduced to the senate earlier in the month that would cut the grocery tax on some basic food items, such as bread, milk, cheese and fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Oak Mountain State Park has announced that it will be repurposing part of the park’s demonstration farm to be used as a dog park. The park is working to find permanent homes for all of the animals that lived on the demonstration farm. The demonstration farm will close after April 30.
- A bill banning transgender athletes from competing on the sports teams of their identifying gender at two or four year colleges in Alabama was approved by the Alabama House Education Policy Committee. Supporters of the bill have said that transgender women would have an unfair advantage over their competition. Opponents have decried the bill as discriminatory and some have argued it is targeting a problem that doesn’t exist. There are currently 32 transgender athletes in the NCAA out of 480,000 athletes.
New tough-on-crime legislation doesn’t address the issue of overcrowding
This legislative session has seen Alabama increase minimum sentencing for several crimes, cracking down on crime and potential early release, but doing nothing to address overcrowding in state prisons. This comes at a time when the state is still facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ filed a lawsuit in 2020 against Alabama for unconstitutional conditions in its men’s prisons.
One of the latest in a slew of tough-on-crime bills presented by members of the Alabama Legislature is a bill to increase penalties for those found responsible for gang-related crimes. The bill is being backed by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall.
“If you’re a gang member engaged in gang activity resulting in crime, then we ought to enhance that punishment to create that deterrent effect for those that want to engage in this behavior,” said Marshall on Capitol Journal.
The bill would require that juveniles 16 years of age or older are required to be tried as adults for any gang-related crimes. The bill also would create a definition to identify gang members.
According to the bill, gang members could be identified by the admittance of another member or their parents. They could also be considered a gang member if they meet at least three of seven markers, including having a tattoo used by a gang, using a gang hand sign, identified in the presence of a gang member four or more times or dressed in the style of a gang.
While the bill gained support from 162 police chiefs and sheriffs in the form of a signed letter, it also attracted some criticism.
Several Democratic representatives opposed the bill during a house committee meeting. Rep. Patrice McClammy, a Democrat from Montgomery criticized the bill for the way she felt it was failing to support children.
“Instead of us trying to find partnerships to identify what we can do to help these families and these children, we say, ‘let’s lock them up and throw away the key,’” McClammy said.
The Alabama Civil Liberties Union had a similar opinion as McClammy.
“These bills use an overly broad and highly discretionary definition to identify individuals gang affiliated and these sentencing enhancements are unnecessary when we have existing criminal penalties that are being enforced to criminalize similar activity,” ACLU said on its website. “These bills open the door to dangerous profiling and infringe upon First Amendment expression.”
This is just one of several bills that the legislature is considering to create harsher sentencing for criminal activities. The legislature recently passed a bill that requires mandatory prison time for possession of one gram of fentanyl.
The legislature also is considering a bill that would reduce good time, which is the time those incarcerated can earn off their sentence for good behavior. Good time has already undergone changes this year. Gov. Kay Ivey created new rules for the incentive program that makes it easier for incarcerated individuals to lose accumulated good time and the ability to continue earning it.
While several measures considered to be tough on crime have been introduced, so far there have been no bills proposed that would alleviate the issue of overcrowding in the state’s prison system.
According to a January report from the Alabama Department of Corrections, across all its facilities, ADOC’s population is 165% more than designed capacity.
While funding for ADOC has been increased to help fund new prisons, ADOC commissioner John Hamm told legislatures that the new prisons wouldn’t result in any net gain in capacity, because they would close older facilities once the new constructions were finished.
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