As goes France, So Goes Alabama.

"Lately, tougher-on-crime policies in (Alabama) have resulted in longer terms for...petty criminals. Thirty-five years ago the average criminal sentence...was four months. Now it’s eight and a half."

I edited the above from a movie review in today's N.Y. Times. The movie is about overcrowded prisons...in France. But the root of the problem there is the same as it is here. Alabama politicians, seeking to show how anti-crime they are, introduced and won passage of bills increasing penalties for all sorts of crimes. "Three Strike And You're Out" was perhaps the most grievous offender. Few of those who had to seek re-election were brave enough to stand up and point out the obvious: when you increase the length of prison sentences, you increase the number of prisoners being held at any given time. Did they agree to fund new prison construction? To find money for more guards? To finance actual rehabilitation? Of course not, because they would have forced them to commit the other cardinal sin for those running for office in this state: voting for a tax increase. Any tax increase. The Department of Corrections says as of August, there were some 25,593 inmates in correctional facilities that are designed to only hold 13,403 prisoners. Alabama spends less per inmate on keeping a prisoner behind bars than any other state. While there might be some reason to brag about keeping costs of any state project below the national average, being dead last in this category doesn't mean best. Last Spring, guards in France held public protests against working conditions brought on by the overcrowding. About the same time, the professional organization representing the Alabama correctional officers filed papers in support of prisoner complaints about overcrowding. The guards siding with the prisoners! How far behind are we? Here's what the Assistant Executive Director of the Parole Board told The Times-Daily in November of 2007:

"Alabama cannot afford to build enough prisons to put everyone convicted of a felony in prison," he said. "There's not enough money in the general fund to pay for all the prisons we would need to do that."

And that was before Alabama tax collections sunk like a rock. Every time the Alabama Legislature meets, they pass new laws creating new felonies. The movie being reviewed in the N.Y. Times is "The Prophet". A central theme of the film is the ongoing violent conflict among various ethnic populations in French jails. As Alabama's population becomes more diverse, watch for our prison populations to mirror that change, and for the prisons in Sweet Home Alabama to take on a French accent. And there will be nothing Oh La La about it.