May 23, 2013
Houston County Sheriff Lamar Glover plans to transfer some state prisoners to Montgomery to head off a possible jail-overcrowding problem.
The new 400-bed jail opened last spring. Right now, 322 prisoners are being housed in the jail, but 60 of them have already been sentenced to state prisons and are past a 30-day deadline for the Department of Corrections to accept them.
Two years ago, Glover took a busload of inmates unannounced to state prison officials because of overcrowded conditions in the old jail.
That action eventually led to a court order forcing the state prison system to remove more than 1,500 inmates from county jails across Alabama.
The sheriff said he has notified state prison officials that he'll be delivering 60 inmates next week.
State prison officials have renewed an old bond issue so they can build a new 400-bed minimum-security prison and help relieve overcrowded conditions.
The state also faces a new order from Federal Judge Myron Thompson that officials come up with a plan by Dec. 30 for relieving overcrowding at Tutwiler Prison for women in Wetumpka.
