MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WHNT) — At a meeting today of the Joint Prison Committee, leaders discussed the drug problems, abuse, and need for accountability inside Alabama’s prison system.
These are well documented in “The Alabama Solution,” an HBO film that leaders say is proof of the need for reform in prisons.
Earnestine Council is the mother of Robert Earl Council, an inmate in The Alabama Solution documentary. After seeing what her son faces with her own eyes, she wants to see leaders take action.
“It brought light to a dark place,” Council said. “You can always speak something, but this was not only speaking it with the mouth, but they were able to see for themselves what is behind them walls.”
“I can’t, with good conscience, tell anybody that we’re making progress, when they see that,” Rep. Chris England (D-Tuscaloosa) told John Hamm, commissioner of the Department of Corrections.
Hamm said changing the culture in prisons will take time.
“The culture that you mentioned- oh, it’s there,” he responded to England. “And that’s something we’ve been working on for quite some time. And, as you know, it’s tough.”
Rep. England said “The Alabama Solution” documents the culture of excessive force and civil rights abuses. That’s coming from officers within the system.
“You would get the impression from watching the film, and also looking at your own evidence, that the system not only encourages it, but it also enables it,” England said. “So, in order to root that sort of thing out, and make the public know that we’re aware of those things, folks like that can’t work for us.”
England said bringing in an independent agency would help root out those issues.
“There has to be something within the system, systems we change, oversight that we create, accountability we create, so we can actually start making a difference.”
Representative England said constituent services recently created by the Department of Corrections have helped inmate families better communicate their concerns. But ultimately, he said more oversight is needed for Alabama’s prisons.
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