By Paul DeMarco
With September upon us, we are now less than five months from the next Alabama Legislative Session.
Paul DeMarco
Thus, lawmakers will start working on getting ready for the next session and what bills they will be pre-filing in advance of returning to Montgomery. This past year, gambling took up a lot of the session despite never getting final approval. However, lawmakers are already talking about Alabama’s criminal justice system and what needs to be done to increase public safety.
Every week the headlines show the failures in our state that lead to more crime victims. First, there were nine shootings in Bessemer recently over one weekend., with three of the victims killed. The suspect was out on bond after having been released by a Bessemer judge while awaiting trial for manslaughter in another shooting. In another case, a 42-year-old Birmingham man who had pled guilty to raping and impregnating a 12-year-old was sentenced to 20 years in jail on a lesser charge and will be eligible for parole much sooner.
There are a lot of problems that have led to the spike in violent crime, many of them complicated, like poverty and education. There are others that can be addressed over time like properly funding law enfacement and putting more patrol officers on the streets.
But what needs to be immediately addressed is what is happening in Alabama courthouses. Violence across our state continues to spike with no end in sight and one of the problems is the recidivism rate due to the revolving door at Alabama courthouses. Until Alabama has real truth in sentencing, felons will continue to commit crimes and create new victims. Legislators also need to look at the discretion given to judges related to bond and bail for violent offenders. Voters also need to pay attention to how judicial candidates and those already on the bench value public safety.
Alabama citizens deserve a criminal justice system that mirrors the federal system in that it ensures that someone convicted of a crime truly serves the majority of the time they were ultimately sentenced to by a Judge. Alabama should follow this approach and to ensure there is truly justice for crime victims and their families.
Paul DeMarco is a former member of the Alabama House of Representatives and can be found on X, formerly Twitter, at @Paul_DeMarco
