The State of Alabama manages the vast majority of criminal justice institutions within its borders. The following sections briefly outline key data points and statistics about Alabama crime, prison, and criminal justice programs and policies.

Alabama ranks 17th in the nation for its incarceration rate, above Nevada and below Virginia. The majority of those incarcerated in this state are either in the jail system, usually awaiting trial, or in the prison system, post-trial. Further, while the number of Alabamians in jail has remained mostly constant in recent decades, Alabama’s prison population has soared. That suggests larger numbers of Alabamians are being convicted and sentenced each year.¹

According to 2019 National Institute of Corrections data,² Alabama has 132 jails in 67 counties. The state’s jail population was 16,520 in 2019. Alabama also has 15 state prisons which hold 26,841 inmates. There are also two federal prisons and three federal prison camps in Alabama, which house some 4,300 inmates. Alabama’s largest prison is the Limestone Correctional Facility,² located in Madison County and housing some 2,086 prisoners.

Alabama’s incarceration rate is 419 per 100,000, its violent crime rate is 511 per 100,000, and its property crime rate is 2,674 per 100,000. The prison budget is $514,969,010 per year, the 7th costliest budget item in the state’s annual budget. Alabama spends about $23,360 per inmate per year.⁴

From collaborative data analyzed and reported by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and the Institute of Data and Analytics, there were 69,120 crimes committed in Alabama in 2020. The data indicated that 56,731 of those crimes were property crimes, while 12,389 were violent crimes. The state also reported 9,848 assaults, 10,193 burglaries, and 258 homicides. Alabama law enforcement made 88,931 arrests in 2020, 86,973 involving an adult and 1,958 involving a juvenile.⁵

According to the Bureau of Justice Assistance, a statistics and data-finding body for the United States Department of Justice, Alabama has a recidivism rate of 31%, meaning close to one in three formerly incarcerated Alabamians will become incarcerated again. Recidivism is harmful to society and a sign of ineffective criminal reform, so it is clear there is a need for more evidence-based rehabilitation programs in Alabama. Better programs would reduce the toll of incarceration on the state’s budget, reduce the rising need for so many arrests, and reduce recidivism.⁶

Thankfully, there are some criminal rehabilitation programs operating in Alabama that are making a difference. For example, drug courts are prevalent statewide, allowing individuals arrested for drug-related crime to enter long-term drug treatment under court supervision rather than receive a harsh prison sentence. Alabama operates 116 drug court programs. Such courts aim to prioritize long-term recovery over punishment.

The Substance Abuse Program (SAP) in Alabama is the state’s most prominent drug court program. SAP is an evidence-based, 8-week program that seeks to take a positive, comprehensive approach to helping inmates who struggle with drug and alcohol dependency. The program focuses on drug education, the addiction process, signs and symptoms of chemical dependency, relapse prevention, and recidivism reduction.⁷

Another recent effort at implementing evidence-based programs inside prisons in Alabama began with the Alabama Therapeutic Education Facility. This program seeks to educate Alabama inmates on various trade skills, better positioning them for the workplace once they complete their prison sentence. Quoting former ATEF director Gary Hetzel, “This program is unique in that it lends itself to a culture that is not available anywhere else. Our residents are treated with give and take and respect – the way you want to be treated. When you step through the door, the labels go away. Through our program, we transform people, providing them with the skills and education they need to become productive citizens.” ATEF is a good example of Alabama taking a step in the right direction for more effective criminal justice reform.⁸

The criminal justice system in Alabama sometimes does include alternatives to incarceration as options for offenders. Unfortunately, such programs are not utilized as often as they should be, and they need to be expanded and updated to align with evidence-based modalities.

Existing alternatives to prison in Alabama include:

• Drug Diversion Programs
• Drug Court
• Work-Release Programs
• Supervised Probation
• House Arrest or Electronic Monitoring

As mentioned earlier, Alabama’s criminal justice institutions have a recidivism rate of 31%, indicating poor rehabilitation outcomes for almost one in three incarcerated individuals. And while the above-mentioned alternatives to prison in Alabama could help reduce the recidivism rate, too few Alabamians have access to such alternatives. For example, the drug court system mentioned above only has 116 individual courts, yet Alabama law enforcement performs over 2,000 drug-related arrests each year, 94% of which are for the possession of drugs, not for the sale of drugs.⁹ Existing drug courts are immensely overburdened and unable to service all non-violent, possession-only drug offenders, and some counties in Alabama don’t even have drug courts set up yet, leaving no option for the state but to incarcerate offenders.¹⁰

It’s also worth repeating that Alabama’s prison system is the 7th costliest item on the state’s annual budget. If alternatives to incarceration were made more available to offenders, recidivism rates would likely drop and the tax burden of the carceral system would, at least to some degree, recede.

The above programs should be expanded and utilized more frequently as alternatives to incarceration, to reduce Alabama’s prison population and still rehabilitate offenders without exposing them to the harsh prison system.

No incarceration system is perfect, and the criminal justice system in Alabama is no exception to that rule. While some educational programs inside prisons in Alabama have been implemented in recent years, the state still struggles with a higher-than-average jail-to-prison rate and overall incarceration rate than the U.S. average.

Criminal reform is certainly possible, and rehabilitation is attainable. Alabama should invest more heavily in educational programs, prison diversion tactics like the successful efforts of King County’s LEAD program, and transition programs that are proven to reduce recidivism. Such programs work.¹¹