The Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority late last month approved a final price of $1.082 billion for the prison now under construction in Elmore County in east central Alabama.
This hefty price tag is set to devour most of the $1.25 billion that state lawmakers in 2021 initially set aside for the construction of two prisons each housing 4,000 inmates. The chairs of the General Funding committees in the State Senate and State House of Representatives said Alabama will proceed with the creation of the second prison even though there isn't enough funding.
"The new prison facilities being built in Alabama are critically important to public safety, to our criminal justice system and to Alabama as a whole," said Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, who blamed inflation for the price increase from its initial cost of $975 million. "We have not built new prisons in more than 30 years, and if it was easy, it would have been attempted by a governor before me."
The new prison will include facilities for medical care and vocational training and is expected to be completed in May 2026, according to the terms of the contract with the state.
Critics warn of rising trend of "supersize" prisons
Alabama is not the only state moving forward with building a massive and expensive prison. In Georgia, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners is looking to find funds for a $1.69 billion, 4,500-bed facility to replace the current Fulton County Jail.
In Nebraska, the state has approved the construction of a $350 million, 1,500-bed prison to replace the Nebraska State Penitentiary. Supporters of this new prison claim it will alleviate the overflow of inmates in other state prisons, which currently hold around 50 percent more people than they were initially designed for. (Related: Dem senator introduces bill that will allow California's worst criminals to be released after serving 20 years in prison.)
The Nebraska prison is expected to begin construction by the fall of 2024. The Georgia jail, once plans are approved, is expected to open by 2029. Other states are constructing additional prison projects, such as a new jail to replace New York City's notorious Rikers Island.
Prison reform advocates warn that building new facilities will only put a temporary band-aid on the issue of decaying old prison and jail facilities that need a long-term solution to their decline.
"No experts have said that newer jails will solve our prison crisis," warned Charlotte Morrison, a senior attorney at the Alabama-based nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative. "If you have a football team that's losing year after year, a new stadium doesn't make it better. You need new leadership."
Morrison and other advocates in Alabama and all over the country have noted that what prisons need is meaningful rehabilitation programs, the lack of which is contributing to the overall decline of conditions in prisons. They suggest other reforms aimed at easing overcrowding.
Watch this Oct. 17 episode of "Brighteon Broadcast News" as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, discusses the largest open-air prison in the world – the Gaza Strip – and how it serves as a pilot program for globalist enslavement and extermination plans.
This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.
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