Alabama governor defends plan to use covid relief funds to build new prisons

[Nevilledog]

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Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski
She only did this first because Abbott and Desantis hadn’t thought of it yet.

Alabama governor defends plan to use covid relief funds to build new prisons
The proposals backed by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey have been met with some objections.
washingtonpost.com
1:53 PM · Sep 29, 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/29/kay-ivey-alabama-prison-coronavirus-funds/

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) is hitting back after criticism over plans to use coronavirus pandemic relief funds provided by the federal government to finance the construction of new prisons in the Southern state.

“The Democrat-controlled federal government has never had an issue with throwing trillions of dollars toward their ideological pet projects,” Ivey said in a statement on Tuesday. “These prisons need to be built, and we have crafted a fiscally conservative plan.”

The fallout comes after Ivey convened a special session of the Alabama legislature on Monday to address the state’s ailing prison infrastructure, which she admitted was “broken.” Using the funding in this way, she said, aimed to provide an “Alabama solution to this Alabama problem.”

The plan, backed by Ivey, to build three new prisons and renovate others will involve using up to $400 million from the state’s share of American Rescue Plan funds, according the Associated Press. Alabama has reported almost 15,000 covid-related deaths, according to the latest state data, making it one of the hardest hit parts of the country from the pandemic.

*snip*

[Lovie777]

1. It's for COVID . ..

make them pay it back.

[dchill]

2. How can she even do that?

[allnews]

3. The nerve!

What Democratic pet projects is she referring to? Things like health care and feeding children? Well that’s better than locking up more people, which is all too often their answer.

[Glorfindel]

4. Some interesting statistics on Alabama's prisons

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/AL.html

from the link: "Alabama has an incarceration rate of 938 per 100,000 people (including prisons, jails, immigration detention, and juvenile justice facilities), meaning that it locks up a higher percentage of its people than any democracy on earth."

[msongs]

5. this is why congress should not give away money without tight strings on its use nt