Fix Alabama’s Prisons & Restore Accountability

Alabama cannot keep pouring money into a broken prison system and calling it reform. Our prisons are dangerous for correctional officers, unconstitutional for the people in state custody, and costly for taxpayers who deserve to know where their money is going. Doug believes public safety begins with honesty, accountability, and a prison system that follows the law.

The Challenge

• ·Alabama’s prisons remain overcrowded, understaffed, violent, and under federal scrutiny.

• Taxpayers are being asked to fund billion-dollar prison construction without a clear accounting of the costs.

• The Elmore County prison project rose from a $623 million construction figure to about $1.25 billion to build and equip.

• New buildings may be necessary, but buildings alone will not fix abuse, contraband, violence, corruption, or a staffing crisis.

• Alabama needs a prison system that is safe, constitutional, transparent, and worthy of public trust.

Doug’s Plan

1.      Follow the money

• Conduct a public forensic audit of Alabama’s prison construction program.

• Explain how the Elmore project grew from $623 million to roughly $1.25 billion.

• Identify whether the overruns came from inflation, design changes, contractor pricing, change orders, mismanagement, or worse.

2.     Bring sunlight to prison contracts

• Require public disclosure of major contracts, amendments, contingencies, and change orders.

• Restore real competition and accountability in prison procurement.

• Make sure taxpayers can see what they are paying for before the bill comes due.

3.     Create independent oversight

• Establish oversight outside the Department of Corrections.

• Allow unannounced inspections, confidential interviews, and regular public reporting.

• Track the facts: violence, deaths, overdoses, contraband, staffing, medical care, mental health care, and basic conditions.

4.     Stop the system from investigating itself

• Move serious allegations of abuse, corruption, retaliation, contraband networks, and financial misconduct to an independent investigative unit.

• Protect correctional officers, whistleblowers, incarcerated people, and families who come forward.

• Make accountability real, not optional.

5.     Protect officers and make prisons safer

• Set enforceable staffing standards and improve training, pay, and working conditions.

• Give officers the support they need to do a hard and dangerous job safely.

• Measure progress by fewer assaults, homicides, overdoses, and unnecessary uses of force.

6.     Make reform more than construction

• Use new facilities to close dangerous, crumbling prisons, not to excuse the same broken practices in newer buildings.

• Pair construction with sentencing, parole, addiction, mental health, and re-entry reforms.

• Reduce overcrowding responsibly while keeping the focus on real public-safety threats.

What This Delivers

• A clear accounting of Alabama’s billion-dollar prison spending

• Independent oversight of prison violence, deaths, abuse, and conditions

• Safer workplaces for correctional officers

• Constitutional and humane conditions inside state facilities

• Less waste, less corruption, and more public trust

• A prison system that protects communities and respects the rule of law

Why It Matters

This should not be a partisan issue. Safe prisons, honest spending, and constitutional government are basic obligations.

Alabama is paying more and getting less: dangerous facilities, federal scrutiny, and a construction program the public still cannot fully see into. Doug’s plan brings the focus back where it belongs: protecting communities, protecting officers, following the law, and making sure taxpayer dollars are spent with integrity.