DOC: Overcrowding and understaffing contribute to prison violence

MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - The Alabama Department of Corrections faces some violent consequences from prison overcrowding and understaffing, according to Commissioner Jefferson Dunn.

So far this year the state has seen seven inmate-on-inmate homicides, 118 inmate-on-inmate serious assaults and 12 serious
assaults on officers.

Currently there are 28 correctional facilities and 24,191 inmates. According to Dunn, the capacity of the 28 facilities is supposed to total around 13,000, meaning Alabama has the most overcrowded prison system in the country.

Complicating the problem, is a lack of staffing for the prisons. According to Dunn, staffing in the 28 facilities varies from 55 to 70 percent.

"The fact is that we are stretched very thin in all of our security areas," Dunn said.

Correctional officers face on average a 9 to 1 prisoner to inmate ratio in Alabama, meaning almost every officer must work mandatory overtime.

Compounding the overcrowding and understaffing problem is a lack of resources. According to Dunn, there are improvement projects ready to go on many of the state's prisons, but they lack the money to go ahead with them.

Dunn said the answer to the state's problem is to add and retain more correctional officers while slowly reducing the amount of inmates. Dunn said the Prison Reform Act passed last year, but it will take a while to take effect.

"We've got a long way to go to get our prison population to the number that it needs to be so that we can continue to provide the safety and security that we need to," Dunn said.

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