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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 $400 million of its $2.2 billion in COVID relief to help fund the construction of three new mega-prisons, 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% 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 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 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 – 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 to force the state’s prisons to provide proper health care. The litigation continues but has already led to a sweeping order 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.
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In solidarity,
Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
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