It's inflation y'all!

Calling bullshit on Gov. Ivey's mega-prison dirt pile

Alabama has released few specifics on the billion dollar mound of dirt in Elmore County. But we do know they’re hoping to one day cut the ribbon there on a shiny new mega-prison, so our state can continue to incarcerate citizens at one of the highest rates in the world.

Anyone who has studied the crisis in Alabama prisons knows that building new prisons will not fix the rampant deaths, contraband drugs or staff ineptitude. Prison construction was not among the directives from the U.S. Department of Justice when it issued findings that ADOC amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

Nevertheless, leaders in Montgomery seized on the opportunity to embark on this mega-prison construction dream, continuing to insist that the state “must have new prisons” to satisfy the Department of Justice.

That is 100% pure Gobshite.

If you don’t believe me, here’s a link to the DOJ reports, this one in 2019 citing violence, overcrowding and understaffing, and this one in 2020 pointing to systemic excessive force.

On page 47 of the first report, in plain language, the DOJ makes it crystal clear that new facilities will not resolve factors like “understaffing, culture, management deficiencies, corruption, policies, training, non-existent investigations, violence, illicit drugs, and sexual abuse.”

So why do reporters continue to allow Gov. Ivey and lawmakers to parrot the “must have new prisons” lie over and over again to a sanguine population?

The most recent regurgitation occurred on February 7 when Gov. Ivey, appearing feeble and sounding hoarse, granted a rare interview with a reporter from WHNT in Huntsville.

The reporter asked the Governor why the initial cost estimate for the Elmore county mega-prison jumped from $623 million to over $1 billion.

“Nothing went wrong, it’s just a matter of inflation,” Ivey said. “The cost of everything has gone up. And so obviously the construction ingredients have escalated as well.”

“Construction ingredients” has clearly been decided upon as the Governor’s talking point. She blamed inflation when asked about the soaring prison cost last year. But her office hasn’t revealed any specific numbers to back up this claim, or accounted for how the cost and number of prisons in the project seem to change as often as springtime weather.

How is it that in 2017, then Governor Robert Bentley wanted $800 million to build four prisons? We thought that was absurd, but now it seems like a bargain.

As the plans and behind-the-scenes stakeholders have changed, the cost has exploded. From inflation? Sure, costs go up, but I’m not buying a boondoggle this big doubling in price simply because materials are pricier. Show us the receipts. Open up the books. Let us see the specifics in this plan that you’re paying for with our money.

And meanwhile, the crisis in ADOC persists, with more people dying horrific deaths in 2023 than any year on record. People die as the state continues to poke around in a billion dollar dirt pile.

Ivey also says they are “working hard” to stop contraband from being smuggled into the prisons. How exactly they are working hard wasn’t pursued. What exactly they’re doing differently wasn’t asked.

Sorry, Governor. I’m calling bullshit on your bullshit.

Alabama’s media should push for more specifics and not accept status quo lip service from Ivey and others on this issue. The stakes are too high and inside the prisons, it’s literally a matter of life and death.