Government

Governor’s Study Group Meets on Prison Operations

Gov. Kay Ivey’s Study Group on Criminal Justice Policy convened Wednesday in Montgomery to discuss operations of the Alabama Department of Corrections. Earlier in the day, the group toured Staton Correctional Facility in Elmore County, one of the state’s 15 major correctional facilities. “It’s crowded. It’s hot,” group chairman Justice Champ Lyons said of the prisons tour. “They have fans, bunkbeds, lights that stay on 24/7. You learn to sleep in the daylight.” ADOC is largely understaffed and overcrowded, with record high levels of violence and suicide. In addition to an ongoing lawsuit about the mental health care and medical care of inmates, the department also faces the threat of federal intervention, following the April publication of a scathing Department of Justice report that detailed gruesome conditions in state prisons. Ivey appointed the criminal justice reform group in July to study issues that plague the system. The group will develop reform proposals ahead of the 2020 legislative session. Read more.

by Mary Scott Hodgin, WBHM

Transit Board Rejects Budget With Proposed Route and Fare Changes

The Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority rejected a proposed budget Wednesday that would have increased fares and cut some bus service.

by Sherrel Wheeler Steward, WBHM

Hallmark Cooperative Takes Control of Iconic Property in Warrior, Plans Development

Warrior Mayor Johnny Ragland is like a child looking forward to Christmas as he envisions Warrior’s Hallmark Farms development coming to fruition. Considering the floating Christmas tree and decorated barn with which passersby had become familiar, that is understandable. “Myself, I would love to have it next month,” Ragland said. “Two businesses over here. Five over here. But it takes time.” Members of the Hallmark Cooperative announced today that it has officially taken control of the property just off Interstate 65 and nearly surrounded by Locust Fork, one of three major tributaries of the Black Warrior River. Along with revealing the logo for the cooperative, which features the iconic barn on the property, cooperative members talked about what is to come to the area in north Jefferson County. “We can bring as much as 720 jobs to just this property,” said Jefferson County Commissioner Steve Ammons, who is president of the cooperative. “That is a huge influx of daytime folks.” Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Birmingham Council Fills More Vacancies on BCRI, BMA Boards

After last week’s slew of appointments, the Birmingham City Council voted Tuesday to add even more members to the boards of directors for the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Read more.

by Sam Prickett

Detention Facilities Have Been Drawing Attention Nationwide

A Spanish-Language Journalist Covered ICE Detention. Then He Lived Through It. (Washington Post) Immigration Detention Prolonged in Alabama’s ‘Black Hole’ (Associated Press) ICE Keeps Arresting Prominent Immigration Activists. They Think They’re Being Targeted. (Vice) Detained Immigrants, Groups Sue ICE, DHS for Inadequate Medical Care, Disability Accommodations (Arizona Mirror) Where Cities Help Detain Immigrants (CityLab)

by BirminghamWatch

‘Man Without a Country’ Describes Conditions at Gadsden Detention Center

Awot Negash's troubles with U.S. immigration officials began in 2001 and spiraled two years ago when Immigration and Enforcement officials knocked on his suburban Washington, D.C., home. He eventually wound up in a controversial immigrant detention center in Gadsden. He has been arrested and sent to two centers where immigration officials hold immigrants. He describes the Etowah center in Gadsden as inefficient, unorganized, chaotic and dysfunctional. Read more.

by Virginia MacDonald

Lawyers: Major Changes Happening in How Law Is Applied to Immigrants

Immigration actions in Alabama and Mississippi recently underscore the point: The campaign against undocumented residents is nationwide, not just on the southern U.S. border. That’s no surprise to at least one group in Birmingham – the lawyers who specialize in immigration disputes and have been handling growing caseloads. Local immigration attorneys said that where once individuals would have been released on bond, now they are being sent to detainment centers until their court dates, and it could take months or sometimes years for court dates to be scheduled. Read more.

by Michelle Love

Woodfin Discusses Plan for Free College Tuition to City Graduates

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin on Wednesday discussed his plan to offer Birmingham City Schools graduates the chance to go to a public two-year or four-year school in Alabama tuition-free. He tweeted a reminder Tuesday of the program announced in May. Even Presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders took notice. Read more.

by WBHM and BirminghamWatch

Alabama Site for Detained Immigrants Has History of Abuse Charges, Efforts to Close It

Alabama Site for Detained Immigrants Has History of Abuse Charges, Efforts to Close It

As 2020 rolls in, BirminghamWatch looks back at its biggest stories of 2019, highlighting a different one each day. After immigration officers detained Marcos Baltazar and his son, Juan, in Homewood one morning last week, the two men were in the Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden by nightfall. Their destination spotlights the Etowah center, a controversial facility adjoining the county jail in Gadsden where federal authorities detain immigrants. The center has drawn critics’ protests and attempts to close it for years, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office itself tried to close the facility in 2010. That effort hit a maelstrom of resistance from local political officials and their supporters in Congress. Reports on the center cited deficiencies and violations of federal standards in a number of areas, including crowding, discrimination, retaliation, a lack of adequate mental health care and in many cases no effective medical care, poor food and hygiene at the center and practices that curtailed inmates’ ability to communicate with the outside world. Read more.

by Virginia MacDonald

Group Protests Detention of Two Immigrants

Nearly three dozen people attended a press conference Tuesday at the Adelante Alabama worker center to support two of their own who were detained by agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They sat behind media cameras as a panel of their leaders and representatives talked about Adelante board member and immigrant workers’ rights leader Marcos Baltazar and his son Juan, who were detained by ICE agents last week in Homewood. Leaders of Aldelante Alabama said they consider the detentions to be intimidation of the immigrants. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.