'For Cruelty's Sake': State of Alabama diverts $400
million in COVID funds to build prisons, leaving many in dire straits
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Liz Vinson, SPLC Staff Writer | Read the full piece here
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Friend,
Jenny Eisenberg is an unemployed writer - but not by choice. The
market she writes for has "dried up," and her husband, who
holds a doctorate in literature, also cannot find work due to a
saturation of academics pursuing few opportunities. Their financial
situation is "not the best," and providing for a family of
six has led them to live off food stamps.
At the same time, states across the country are using their share of
the $350 billion in State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds from the
American Rescue Plan Act to support families and businesses struggling
from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, to maintain vital services
and to invest in communities.
But in Alabama, rather than focusing on poverty, education equity or
affordable housing, the Legislature directed
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$400 million of its $2.2 billion in COVID relief to help fund the
construction of three new mega-prisons
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, further embracing a failed system of mass incarceration that for
generations has disproportionately harmed communities of color and
people living in poverty.
The fact that Alabama chose to divert about 20%
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of its COVID funding to build new prisons doesn't surprise
Eisenberg, given Alabama's history of choosing incarceration
over programs that fight poverty and, potentially, lead to less crime.
Alabama is the fifth-poorest state
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in the country, with nearly 17% of its population living in poverty.
"The government is being cruel for cruelty's sake,"
Eisenberg, 44, told the Southern Poverty Law Center. "Making
prisons out of COVID funds when the state could've helped people
is cruel, and as long as Alabama accepts that cruelty - which is
how it's always worked here - we won't be able to
move forward to solve issues such as poverty, racism, homophobia or
sexism."
Eisenberg - who has two older children and 8-year-old twins
- is just one of many who could have benefited from the COVID
funding.
SPLC Policy Associate Katie Glenn said that when the Alabama
Legislature earmarked the funds to build mega-prisons, the state made
clear its priority is to keep as many Alabamians locked up as long as
possible.
"These funds were meant to support struggling hospitals, provide
a lifeline to small businesses, create access to education for rural
communities and much more, Glenn said. "They were not intended
to finance Alabama's latest prison construction boondoggle.
Unfortunately, our legislators and Gov. Kay Ivey chose to line the
pockets of prison construction companies instead of putting Alabamians
first."
System in crisis
There's no denying that Alabama's vastly overcrowded
prison system is in crisis.
The prisons are notorious
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for putting the health and lives of people in their care at risk
through rampant violence and the lack of adequate health care.
An SPLC report - Cruel Confinement: Abuse, Discrimination and
Death Within Alabama's Prisons
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- found that many people incarcerated in Alabama are condemned
to penitentiaries where systemic indifference, discrimination and
life-threatening conditions are the norm.
In 2014, the SPLC and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program filed
suit
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to force the state's prisons to provide proper health care. The
litigation continues but has already led to a sweeping order
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to overhaul the prison system's mental health care. In that
ruling, a federal judge declared mental health care in Alabama prisons
to be "horrendously inadequate" - an
unconstitutional failure that has resulted in a "skyrocketing
suicide rate" among incarcerated people. In addition, an
agreement was reached in 2016 to ensure that people with disabilities
receive treatment and services required by federal law.
READ MORE
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