May 11th: Alabama state legislature votes to let non-violent offenders
off the hook on 3-strikes law
Bill alters 3-strikes law for nonviolent
05/12/2000
KIM
CHANDLER
News staff writer
MONTGOMERY - In the face of overflowing
prisons, the state Legislature on Thursday approved a bill to let nonviolent
offenders off the "three strikes, you're out" hook. The revision of the
Habitual Offender Act would allow judges to give parole and suspended
sentences, instead of life imprisonment, to repeat offenders whose crimes were
not violent.
Paul Hamrick, Gov. Don Siegelman's chief of staff, said
the governor is expected to sign the bill into law.
Politics
"I
don't think the people who wrote the original had the intent to fill up our
prisons with people who stole or wrote bad checks until we don't have room for
violent offenders," said Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham. Bill sponsor
Rep. Demetrius Newton, D-Birmingham, estimated 2,500 nonviolent offenders are
convicted under the state's habitual offender law.
The bill would save
the state $6.1 million over nine years, Newton said. The Senate approved the
bill on a 15-9 vote Thursday. The House of Representatives then concurred with
changes the Senate had made in the version of the bill it passed earlier. The
Senate changed the bill so it would affect only new cases after lawmakers
complained of a potential flood of release petitions.
That's not fair,
said Diana Summerford of Warrior, whose son is serving life in prison without
the possibility of parole for crimes related to his crack cocaine addiction.
"He was a drug addict and stole to support an insatiable drug habit," Mrs.
Summerford said. "We've got men who've been in there 20 years that need to come
out. It's not fair to them."
Alabama's prisons have historically grown
at the rate of 1,000 inmates a year. "There are a lot of alternatives that we
can do with these folks," said Lucia Penland, director of the Alabama Prison
Project. "It's more complex than just locking them up."
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Date last modified: 05/18/00.