After years and years of anguish, murders, assaults, horror stories and an absurd lack of oversight of our state prison system, there is currently a bill making its way through the legislature that would be a godsend.
Senate Bill 316, sponsored by Republican state Senator Larry Stutts, would drastically alter the way our prisons are monitored, and it places the responsibility for investigating and prosecuting criminal acts within our prisons with independent agencies. So, you know, there will be fewer instances of inmates dying from falls from a bunk in which they land on a knife multiple times.
The bill has the support of some of Alabama’s most consistent and mindful prison watchdogs and watchdog groups, such as Alabama Appleseed. That group, which has a sterling reputation for advocating that we simply treat people—all people—with decency and respect, has been actively lobbying for the bill.
But for some reason, in this state that is dominated by conservative Christian Republicans in our state Legislature, getting movement on a bill that would decrease violence and crime in our prisons, thus making them safer and more likely to have success at correcting bad behavior, has been all but impossible. Privately, Republicans will admit freely that our prisons are a hellscape that suck up far too much taxpayer money, are constant sources of shocking violence, drug use and death, and may actually do more to create criminals than discourage crime or correct bad actors.
The problem, it seems, is that there is little, if any, political advantage to taking on the prison problem. You don’t win votes in this conservative state by assisting criminals. And without an election advantage, who needs the headache of taking on the Alabama Department of Corrections and its many, many, many problems and bureaucrats?
Like with most social issues, it is a problem that would require personal stakes for a conservative Republican to get involved. Something that brought the horrors of the Alabama prisons to the doorstep of a Republican.
That appears to be the case with Stutts.
In April 2024, Stutts’ brother-in-law, Thomas Alvin Vernor III, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of sexual abuse of a child less than 12 years old. Court records from the case indicate that Vernor was indicted on three separate counts of child sex abuse involving his step-granddaughters. He has served just over a year so far at ADOC’s Hamilton Aged and Infirmed facility.
This incident has apparently awakened Stutts to the realities of the prison system.
He submitted an affidavit on Vernor’s behalf during an appeal. Stutts also recently sought to have his sister appointed to the state’s pardons and paroles board, according to multiple sources familiar with the nomination process.
Last week, as his bill was about to roll out, Stutts penned an op-ed saying his faith called on him to lead an effort to make serious changes within Alabama’s prisons.
Whether it was faith, his personal experience or some combination, the result is a quality bill that, if passed, would bring about meaningful change. Without an ounce of hyperbole, it’s safe to say that it would save lives and deter what has become commonplace violence and sexual assaults within the prisons.
The bill will create an oversight board of professionals—lawmakers, doctors, mental health professionals, formerly incarcerated people, family members of currently incarcerated people and law enforcement to review cases, address problems and tackle lingering issues.
It removes oversight from ADOC and places investigations of violent crimes with the State Bureau of Investigations. And it creates an extra prosecutor’s position in every county where there’s a major ADOC facility so cases can be properly and timely prosecuted.
And it creates a Prison Oversight Coordinator position—giving a single person the authority to enter any prison at any time and collect publicly available information and document processes and conditions.
None of this is overreach. All of it is necessary.
And here’s the truly unbelievable part: No matter how much it costs us to implement this, it will be less than what we’re currently paying to defend the dysfunctional ADOC. Journalist Beth Shelburne, a few months ago, reported that the state has paid out more than $57 million since 2020 on legal defense bills alone.
That doesn’t count medical costs to treat all of those injured prisoners. It doesn’t count the money we pay the attorneys employed by ADOC and the AG’s office full time. It doesn’t count the man hours spent by staff and state law enforcement to investigate and prosecute the violent acts and the drug trafficking and the neglect cases.
So, no matter how this bill came to be sponsored. No matter the motivations of the sponsor. It’s a good bill. In fact, it’s a rare bill for the Alabama legislature.
It addresses a real problem and does so smartly, compassionately and efficiently.
