Posted on 06/27/2002 2:21:46 PM PDT by chance33_98
Parole Board Cuts Hearings Due To Money Problems Board Eliminates One Day Of Hearings
POSTED: 1:12 p.m. CDT June 27, 2002 UPDATED: 1:58 p.m. CDT June 27, 2002
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- The state parole board is the fourth branch of the state's criminal justice system to face budget shortages, with parole hearings getting canceled and layoffs being considered.
Gov. Don Siegelman said Wednesday he is determined to find money to shore up the parole board and add personnel, rather than cut. He did not specify where he would find the money.
On June 6, the parole board eliminated one day of the four days of parole hearings it holds each week. Assistant Executive Director Cynthia Dillard said the board didn't have enough money to employ officers to supervise the extra parolees.
"I'd rather have overcrowded prisons than people out there we can't supervise," Dillard said.
When the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1 and state employees get a 3 percent pay raise, the parole board will be about $2 million short of maintaining its current services, she said. Without extra funding, the board will be forced to lay off employees for the first time in its 64-year history, she said.
Dillard said parole board officials have been talking with Siegelman's staff, but "we haven't gotten any funds yet."
In April, the state court system suspended jury trials for a month until Siegelman provided an extra $500,000 from emergency funds he controls.
On June 14, Montgomery Circuit Judge William Shashy ordered the state to pay $2.16 million to counties to compensate them for a backlog of state inmates in county jails. The inmates had backed up because the state prison system didn't have enough money to provide space for them.
Last week, the state Department of Forensic Sciences announced it would no longer transport bodies and would cut other services due to a $2.2 million shortage.
"I think the state of Alabama is in dire financial straits," Dillard said.
In September, the Pardons and Paroles Board started hearing cases an extra day each week to help move more nonviolent offenders out of state prisons and open up space for state inmates housed in overcrowded county jails.
Dillard said more than 800 nonviolent offenders were paroled as a result of the extra day of hearings each week.
In return, the agency was supposed to get an extra $365,000 in state funds to hire more parole officers and supervise the freed inmates, but the money never materialized, she said.
The Legislature decided to ignore the governor's recommendation of a larger budget for the agency. Instead, the Legislature provided $13.6 million for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, which is the same amount as this year.
Part of the parole board's budget comes from the $30 per month fee that parolees pay for their supervision. Dillard said some parolees have lost their jobs during the economic downturn, and the total monthly fees are running $504,000 instead of the projected $525,000.
The board is not looking at increasing the number of parolees each officer supervises because the 250 officers average more than 170 cases each. The American Probation and Parole Association recommends a caseload of 75, she said.
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