AN ALABAMA SOLUTION
“What we needed was forgiveness … We’re a Christian state. That’s what this state says, and yet it will hold something against you for the rest of your life whether you’re in [prison] or out of [prison].”
— Dena Dickerson, program director of the Offender Alumni Association, a re-entry support program in Birmingham
After serving almost 30 years in Alabama’s prisons, David Fuller reentered the free world with $10 and a bus ticket.
It was a difficult transition.
“They just let you out. You don’t talk to nobody. You don’t go see no counselor. You don’t see someone to adjust to the population out here in society. They just put you out here.”
— David Fuller
As Alabama faces mounting federal pressure to improve conditions inside state correctional facilities, many advocates say the solution lies outside prison walls.
They want lawmakers to invest in resources to keep people out of prison.
State leaders say they want a system focused on rehabilitation and reentry, but it starts with a $1.3 billion investment in new prisons.
Episode 7 of Deliberate Indifference looks ahead to what’s next for Alabama’s prison system and the people inside.
“Addressing these challenges through the construction of new prison facilities is the legal and fiscally sound thing for us to do. And it’s also morally the right thing to do, to ensure we have safe working conditions for our corrections staff and proper rehabilitation capabilities for the inmates.”
— Governor Kay Ivey, after signing into law a $1.3 billion plan to build two mega-prisons for men