Parole Reform
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ShareAs incarceration rates increase, parole has become a critical mechanism for controlling Alabama’s bulging prison population. In the early 1990s, a significant portion of Alabama’s prisoners were paroled, but in the past decade parole grants plummeted even as prison overcrowding reached crisis proportions.
The Attorney General’s Office opposes nearly all parole grants and has even pressured Parole Board members into rescinding parole determinations.
Stringent parole conditions and a lack of support for those re-entering the community have created a high recidivism rate among parolees, who face – among significant obstacles to employment and housing – a complex and time-consuming process to achieve restoration of their right to vote. Alabama has one of the highest disenfrancisement rates in the United States.
News
United States Considered Most Punitive Country in the World
July 26, 2010
From The Economist
Mass incarceration in the United States continues at record high levels despite outsized costs. According to recent data reported in The Economist, the United States has the world's highest incarceration rate, locking up five times more people per capita than Britain, nine times more than Germany, and 12 times more than Japan.
Alabama Reforms Probation Law to Promote Safety and Reduce Prison Crowding
May 10, 2010On April 30, 2010, Alabama Governor Bob Riley signed a new law that limits incarceration in Alabama's overcrowded prisons for people on probation who commit no new offense but technically violate the terms of their probation. The new law gives judges more non-incarceration options for addressing technical probation violations.
EJI's Public Education Efforts Featured on PBS
April 5, 2010
Bryan Stevenson, right, on Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.
On April 2, 2010, EJI's Bryan Stevenson discussed the status of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s vision of economic justice on PBS's Bill Moyers Journal. Watch it here.
Also this week, PBS will broadcast the critically-acclaimed film, The Dhamma Brothers. EJI supported the Dhamma Brothers project and film.
EJI Honors George Kendall and Thomas Sager and Celebrates the Release of Diane Jones
March 25, 2010
EJI staff with honoree Diane Jones, second from left.
On March 23, 2010, EJI honored George Kendall, Director of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey's Public Service Initiative, and Thomas Sager, general counsel of the DuPont Company and DuPont's legal department, with its Equal Justice Award. The second annual award event celebrated the triumph of Diane Jones, the first woman in Alabama to be released from Tutwiler Prison after being sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Alabama Increases Prison Population Even As Nation Succeeds in Reducing Incarceration Levels
March 18, 2010In 2009, Alabama increased its prison population to over 31,000 people. That same period saw the state prison population nationwide decline for the first time in nearly 28 years as states implemented new technology and parole reforms to reduce reliance on incarceration in the face of crippling costs.
