State Rep. Shane Stringer (R-Citronelle) is apparently reconsidering his 2021 "yes" vote on legislation that retroactively applied a 2015 mandatory release law to all inmates before 2015.
Based on the length of an inmate's sentence, that law released inmates between three and 12 months from the end of their sentence with an expectation of monitoring of the inmate by the Bureau of Pardons & Paroles.
During an interview with Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5's "The Jeff Poor Show," the Mobile County lawmaker indicated he was open to another look at the law and argued that building more prisons was a better way to ease overcrowding than mass early release.
"I think we've got to consider looking at it," he said. "When that legislation was passed and pushed, there was a lot of emphasis put on the possibility of the federal government doing a consent decree on our [Department of Corrections] and taking over our prisons and then potentially letting out 50% of inmates or more. And I think that is what potentially got a lot of legislators to support this. We were told it was hopefully going to prevent DOC from getting taken over by the federal government and potentially help ease the stress. But, you know, letting violent offenders out is not going to be the solution to this."
"We have got to come up with something better, including building more prisons," Stringer continued. "Public safety should be our first and utmost priority. We've got to step up and address that. My opinion as a 30-year law enforcement officer is build new prisons. Society basically dictates how many prisons we need, and at this time, we don't have enough. So, we have got to step up and try to address that issue."
Jeff Poor is the executive editor of 1819 News and host of "The Jeff Poor Show," heard Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-noon on Mobile's FM Talk 106.5. To connect or comment, email jeff.poor@1819News.com or follow him on Twitter @jeff_poor.
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