Gov. Kay Ivey has ordered the Alabama Department of Corrections to develop a plan for moving thousands of state inmates out of county jails, where they have been held for months because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The directive came as part of a statewide emergency proclamation Ivey issued Tuesday. It is aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus inside state prisons and addressing complaints from county officials and sheriffs, who say the state has accepted far fewer inmate transfers since March.
The proclamation also guarantees that counties will be reimbursed for the extra cost of housing and treating state inmates, and it shields counties, sheriffs and their employees from liability tied to those added duties.
Ivey urged the Department of Corrections to return to pre-pandemic intake levels as soon as circumstances allow, though she set no deadline. Transfers dropped sharply after ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn suspended them in late March as part of the agency’s effort to prevent outbreaks behind bars.
As of June 10, 83 employees across the state prison system and 27 inmates had tested positive for COVID-19, and two inmates had died. Although the state has accepted some transfers since March 20, many inmates remain in county jails that are also fighting the virus.
Sonny Brassfield, executive director of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama, said the governor’s action highlighted a crisis that had been flying under the radar for the past 75 days. He noted that about 3,000 state inmates were sitting in county jails — roughly 12 percent of the state’s total inmate population — and that the crowding endangers every jail.
The backlog has strained the Mobile County Metro Jail, where a local COVID-19 outbreak has already stretched resources. At last count, more than 50 Metro inmates and 30 corrections officers had tested positive. Warden Trey Oliver said the case count has been declining after the city of Mobile helped screen Metro employees last month.
Oliver reported that 265 state inmates were being held at Metro as of this week — inmates who would normally have been sent to state custody. Some held on probation violations, he said, have already served more than their scheduled sentences because of the state’s backlog.