Let's face it. We all know how this is going to end, don't we?
More than three months have passed since the United States Justice Department put Alabama on notice regarding conditions at the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women, and since then everything has proceeded by the same old script.
State officials, including the governor, have argued that the state is working to fix our prison system's problems, but when all that bureaucratic shuffling about is done, the major problem will still remain: We've got too many prisoners in too little space, and not enough quality people to keep the peace among them. That basic problem is expensive, and no one – certainly no elected official – wants to write the check that pays to fix it.
We've played out this sort of saga before – with prison conditions, mental hospitals, school segregation, voting rights. The late federal jurist Frank Johnson called it "Alabama Punting Syndrome," a genetic disorder that's hard-coded into our political DNA.
Expecting a different outcome this time is as silly as putting a movie in the DVD player and hoping for a different ending every time you watch it.
In journalism, we sometimes prepare what we call "B-matter," the background information for breaking stories – when the verdict hasn't come back yet, or when the votes are still being counted, when the public official is on his deathbed. When the story breaks, fill in the blanks and click "publish."
Here's what I'm stuffing away in my file drawer for one day in the not-to-distant future.
MONTGOMERY, Alabama – Almost ___ years after the United States Justice Department put the state on notice for deteriorating conditions in its prisons, a federal judge said today he would put control of that system in the hands of a court-appointed receiver.
These problems are not new and have continued for decades, Judge ______ wrote, citing the work of one of his predecessors on the federal bench, the late United State District Judge Frank Johnson, in his ruling.
Johnson once called the state's unwillingness to confront expensive and unpopular problems, including prison overcrowding, "Alabama Punting Syndrome," and Judge _____ said today that the state had kicked the football again. In fact, many of the issues before the court today arose more than four decades ago before Johnson in the very same courtroom as today's hearing.
"The legislature, rejecting the right to choose the best among innumerable solutions to its prison difficulties, adjourned without action or comment," Judge ______ quoted extensively from a speech Johnson gave in 1975. "With the legislature having clearly expressed its intention to once again abdicate its authority, it is now left to the federal court to work out a solution which will protect the constitutional rights which incarcerated citizens still retain."
Judge ________ has not yet decided who (he/she) will appoint to be the receiver. He/she requested the parties confer over the next few weeks and draw up a list of mutually accepted candidates.
The Department of Corrections might be under the federal receiver's control soon, but Alabamians will still have to foot the bill, which lawmakers and state officials have said will be expensive.
Estimates for state prison expansion have ranged from $700 million to $1.5 billion. The latter figure would consume nearly all of this year's General Fund budget, Alabama House Speaker __________ said.
"Nobody here wants more taxes, but this problem can't be solved without new revenue or significant reordering the way the state writes its budgets," he said.
During the last legislative session, many lawmakers pushed to combine the Education Trust Fund and General Fund budgets into one "omnibus" budget, but Democratic lawmakers fought back, saying that Republicans wanted to raid public education to pay for prisons.
Rogers went on to say that the only way to fund education and prison improvements would be a legalized lottery, which Republicans have opposed.
At least one Republican lawmaker agreed that the budgets should be kept separate, although he blasted what he called liberal activists and the White House for prioritizing the needs of prisoners before law-abiding citizens.
"The president would rather cook a steak dinner for convicts than give our kids a decent school," state Sen. _______ said. "It turned out the only thing worse than one Obama in the White House is two Clintons."
Is this problem too big to fix without federal intervention or am I just being cynical? Let's talk about it in the comments below.