CONTRIBUTED TO THE OBSERVER
MONTGOMERY — One out of every six bills the Alabama State Legislature considered in the 2023 Legislative Session were prison pipeline bills, according to a new report released today by the ACLU of Alabama.
In the 2023 regular session, state lawmakers introduced 876 bills. Of those, according to the ACLU of Alabama’s 2023 Statehouse to Prison Pipeline Report, 141 sought to increase penalties for individual behaviors, demand longer sentencing or make it more difficult for Alabamians who served their time to be released from prison. Seventy-six of these bills were signed by Gov. Kay Ivey into law.
“Alabamians deserve a legislature that passes bills to fund our public schools, expand access to quality healthcare and improve their lives,” said JaTune Bosby Gilchrist, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama. “Not a legislature focused on funneling them into overcrowded and deadly prisons.”
This is the third year that the ACLU of Alabama has conducted this analysis. It defined a bill as a prison pipeline bill if it:
· Criminalized a behavior or action.
· Increased penalties for a behavior or action.
· Increased spending or the budget of a carceral institution.
· Relied on an unsubstantiated or disproven reform effort.
· Developed unique protections or special privileges for law enforcement officers.
· Targeted or more acutely impact economically insecure Alabamians.
· Expanded the reach of police into Alabamians’ everyday lives. Or,
· Civil penalties were enacted for the behavior or actions.
Ninety-Four House bills and 47 Senate bills met the ACLU’s prison pipeline definition this year.
The ACLU highlighted five of those bills in its report — the Gang/”Criminal Enterprise” Bill (HB 191/SB 143) introduced by Rep. Allen Treadway (HD-51) and Senator Will Barfoot (SD-25); the Loitering Bill (HB 24) introduced by Rep. Reed Ingram (HD-75); the Good Time Bill (SB 1) introduced by Sen. April Weaver (SD-14); the Parole Denied Bill (HB 131/Senate Bill 97) introduced by Rep. Wes Kitchens (HD-27) and Sen. Sam Givhan (HD-7); and the Absentee Ballot Assistance Bill (HB 209) introduced by Rep. Jamie Kiel (HD-18). The Absentee Ballot Assistance Bill was the only piece of legislation highlighted by the ACLU this year that was not enacted. It passed the State House of Representatives but not the Senate.
“For each of the prison pipeline bills we highlighted in our report, we included examples of the unintended consequences, blatant hypocrisy and selective targeting inherent in lawmakers’ approach,” Gilchrist said. “For example, the Statehouse to Prison Pipeline report points out that college sororities meet the legal definition of a ‘criminal enterprise’ established by the legislature this year.”
Meanwhile, the 2023 Statehouse to Prison Pipeline report notes that the legislature did not pass a single bill that authorized meaningful criminal legal reform.
The 2023 Statehouse to Prison Pipeline report highlighted two bills introduced by Rep. Chris England (HD-70) that the ACLU believed would have decreased the prison population, minimized negative interactions between the police and community and helped provide proactive care for Alabamians. House Bill 14 proposed requiring a unanimous jury to impose a death sentence and commuting the sentence of those currently on death row who did not have unanimous verdicts at their trials. House Bill 16 proposed the creation of a Criminal Justice Policy Development Council to strengthen oversight of the Alabama Board of Pardon and Paroles (read the ACLU of Alabama’s recent report investigating Parole Board hearings). Neither bill made it out of committee.
ABOUT THE ACLU:
The ACLU of Alabama works to preserve and protect the civil liberties and civil rights guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution, especially the principles contained in the Bill of Rights. Learn more at aclualabama.org.