(Alabama L-R: Parole board chair Leigh Gwathney, Attorney General Steve Marshall, Governor Kay Ivey)
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about accountability and what that looks like in Alabama. It’s a word tossed around by tough-talking politicians like Gov. Kay Ivey and AG Steve Marshall, but their idea of what exactly accountability means and how it applies to themselves remains unsaid.
Two of Ivey’s supporters who chimed in on her recent executive order regarding “good time” in prison invoked “accountability” in their statements of approval on the changes that make it harder for people to get out of prison alive. Ivey’s order expands the ways a prisoner can lose good time, sometimes permanently.
“Our goal is always to stand with crime victims to make sure criminals are more accountable,” said executive director of VOCAL, Janette Grantham. VOCAL, which stands for “victims of crime and leniency,” is the group that opposes parole in every case, the first to speak in opposition to sentencing reforms. I wonder how Ms. Grantham figures that keeping people locked up in overcrowded, drug-filled, violent dungeons increases accountability? Other than vengeance, what does this practice of chaos in a cage accomplish for crime victims?
“Being accountable for our actions is the hallmark of an orderly and fair society,” said Montgomery County District Attorney Darryl Bailey. “When our actions violate others’ safety and security, we expect to be held accountable for that destructive behavior.” Does Mr. Bailey seriously believe that any inch of space inside Alabama prisons represents something even close to orderly or fair? And if what he says is true, why does the state of Alabama refuse to accept its own accountability in the record number of prison deaths due to violence, overdose and suicide?
If I could sit down and talk with these leaders, I would ask them what accountability means to them. How do they imagine the current dangerous environment inside the Alabama Department of Corrections helps to facilitate accountability? And how much accountability does the state bear in traumatizing the people in its prisons, worsening drug addiction, mental illness and despair?
I’m also still thinking about the ridiculous statement Sen. Clyde Chambliss made in support of Ivey’s grab on good time. Chambliss suggested the changes were needed to punish prisoners who were “gaming the system,” and “hold back those that are not learning their lesson.”
Sen. Chambliss, no doubt, is aware that the parole board has now denied 90 percent of people eligible for release, a new low. That this board even denied release to a wheelchair-bound, elderly and dying Black woman, even after prison officials cleared her for medical release and an organization called Redemption Earned secured her a spot at a nursing home. Is that what accountability looks like? Who gets held accountable for this cruelty?
If you want to see a real example of gaming the system, look at the parole board members’ abysmal conformance rate with their own board guidelines. Sen. Chambliss knows good and well, just like Ivey, Marshall and every other leader in Montgomery, that hundreds of qualified people each month are denied parole, despite fulfilling every mandate set forth in their sentence. Where is the accountability when system actors in power game the system by changing the rules while pretending it’s all orderly and fair? If I could sit down and talk with them, I’d ask them these things. I’d also like to know if they’ve considered the question—what would Jesus do?
Great information, now I hope that they will sit down with you! BTW VOCAL is an organization which shouldn’t be allowed during a parole hearing! They are supporting the victim yes, but they are not part of the Alabama Justice system! This organization has got itself in on everything but by true laws they should be sending a letter to the parole board or there for support of a victims family member, not degrading the inmates family or the inmate, that inmate has already been charged and sentenced and they stand in that parole board room acting like they are DA’s and the DA’s are using them also for their own selfish monetary reasons as in not sending someone from their own office! Also How does VOCAL get the exact statement that ADOC has upon an inmate’s sentence and entering the prison System? They should never have that statement because it is a investigator’s opinion to ADOC and now Vocal is using those exact words at every parole hearing and they shouldn’t never have that piece of paper. Vocal was suppose to be to ensure that victim were show equal justice but this Vocal group in Alabama is overkill! It’s more like 95% to 5% , does this really look equal! I think it’s a money pit also with its 1900 members and Governor Ivy behind it! I’m all for equal justice but this is not equal Justice! It’s evil , vindictive and plan vengeance , nothing more and nothing less! When citizens of Alabama get to experience this you’ll understand, but until then you’ll never know what true justice is because you are listening to vindictive, vengeful people in politics! Remember God says” vengeance is mine” he didn’t say it’s the people’s!
Beth, I enjoy every piece you write, I pray that one of these people that was mentioned in this, would sit up and take notice of what they are doing and realize that THEY are the problem