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The Alabama Department of Corrections had a joint legislative budget committee on Tuesday where Commissioner John Hamm updated lawmakers on the hiring of security and correctional officers and the progress of two new prisons.
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state over conditions in Alabama’s men’s prisons, which are not only rapidly deteriorating and unsafe, but the state does not have enough correctional officers in the prisons to run them properly.
As a result, the DOJ initially gave the state until February 2022 to increase its employment numbers to nearly 4,000 correctional security officers. This deadline has since been extended to July 2025 due to the obvious feat it’s presented to ADOC.
In March 2023, pay raises helped begin an uptick in hired security personnel. ADOC has also been exploring new recruiting methods to bring in employees as well. Almost 1,200 people have attended 76 recruiting events the department has hosted this year, and another 47 are planned before the end of the year.
On Monday, a new partnership launched between ADOC and the Alabama Community College System, the ACTIVATE program, to transition correctional security guards into correctional officers. The inaugural class has 23 trainees.
This program is offered at Jefferson State Community College and Reid State Technical College.
Additionally, since May 2024, the department has been using sponsored ads on Indeed.com. They have seen a 223 percent increase in applications, an increase from 2,233 between January and March 2024 to 7,223 from May to July 2024.
While ADOC’s efforts have boosted their initial applicant numbers, a few factors have contributed to not being able to hire the necessary number of officers. Failed drug screenings, gang affiliations and inability to pass the physical agility and ability tests leaves the eligible pool of contenders at a fraction of where it started.
ADOC has started taking potential officers who cannot pass the physical agility and ability tests required by the Alabama Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission and placing them in corrections security guard positions or placing them in a facility to work on non-contact posts to continue retaining employees.
Even with continued efforts, Hamm said the department would “probably not” meet the staffing requirement.
Hamm also discussed the new prisons being constructed in Elmore County and Escambia County, both of which were initially expected to be constructed with $1.3 billion when the Alabama legislature approved construction in 2021.
Now, the Elmore Specialized Facility alone will cost $1.2 billion and is set to be in use by summer 2026. The facility will be a cell-style prison, whereas many of the prisons currently operating in Alabama are dormitories. It will include vocational education space and specialized mental healthcare with over 1,000 beds dedicated to specialized care.
The Escambia facility construction cannot be started until more funding is located. It will be a 4,000-bed prison, the same as the Elmore Specialized Facility, with fewer amenities.
Although ADOC did make a formal budget request at the meeting, the budget has shown a trend of increasing by tens of millions each year since 2019.
