Alabama prisons will move as many as 1,500 male inmates to private prisons in Louisiana or Mississippi in about three weeks, says the Birmingham News. The move was made possible after state lawmakers approved an emergency $25 million for the system, Prison Commissioner Donal Campbell said.
The corrections system is under court orders to relieve a backlog of state inmates languishing in county jails awaiting transfer to state prisons. More than 300 inmates from Tutwiler Prison for Women have been transferred to a Louisiana prison already to comply with a federal judge’s order to reduce overcrowding.
Campbell said an emergency contract will be awarded without taking bids. He said the first group would include no maximum custody inmates.
The extra millions will allow Alabama’s more than 28,000-inmate prison system to squeak through the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, Campbell said.
Link: http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news/10559282