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Alabama's Justice Reinvestment Approach: Reducing Prison Overcrowding and Strengthening Community-Based Supervision

NCJ Number
248953
Date Published
May 2015
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This report reviews how Alabama is addressing its prison overcrowding and high probation and parole caseloads by enacting Senate Bill 67 in May 2015, which is intended to strengthen community-based supervision and treatment, prioritize prison space for violent and dangerous offenders, and ensure supervision for all persons released from prison.
Abstract
This reform effort has been launched under the rubric of "justice reinvestment," which refers to a data-driven approach intended to reduce corrections spending and reinvest the saving in strategies that have been proven to reduce recidivism. The implementation of the reform legislation has the goal of reducing Alabama's prison population by 16 percent (4,243 people) by fiscal year 2021; and during this same period, reduce prison construction and operations costs by $380 million; reinvest $152 million in supervision, treatment, and support for crime victims; and increase by 3,000 the number of people supervised upon release from prison. In designing and implementing this justice reinvestment strategy, Alabama's reform leaders have received intensive technical assistance from the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, in partnership with The Pew Charitable Trust, and the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). This support continues as Alabama's leaders implement the legislation and assess the impact of the reform policies. The reform legislative provisions are outlined. 1 figure and 10 notes