First of two articles

MONTGOMERY — When a Florence woman sentenced to 15 years in prison for drug distribution came up for parole four months later, people familiar with the case asked why.

The answer: Alabama’s prisons are overcrowded, limiting prison alternatives for nonviolent offenders.

Felita LaShay Vaughn went to Julia Tutwiler prison for distributing drugs in July. Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly prosecuted her. He hoped she would serve at least five years.

Connolly said he was surprised when Vaughn’s request for parole was on the list of cases the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles reviewed Oct. 27. The board denied Vaughn’s request and set October 2013 as the earliest possible time to review her case.

How did Vaughn end up on the list for possible parole so soon?

The way the state defines crimes like Vaughn’s and the type of sentence she got may help explain, said Robert Oaks, assistant executive director of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Although Vaughn was convicted of distributing drugs, her crime was nonviolent and victimless by standard law enforcement definitions.

With no victim to notify before an inmate comes up for parole, Oaks said, cases may reach board review faster than others. With a prison system at 200 percent capacity, federal monitoring is constant.

“If we don’t free up beds, then the federal government will come in and order us to release a certain number by a specific time, and they won’t look at who is most appropriate,” Oaks said.

Overcrowding and funding problems are not the only issues with the corrections system.

Oaks questioned whether maximum security prison or a facility with drug and mental health treatment and job skills training is the better place to put nonviolent inmates.

The shift would free maximum security prison beds for violent criminals who commit murder, manslaughter, rape and other related crimes, he said.

With maximum security prison expense at $43 per day per inmate, state prison is the most expensive punishment available. Less restrictive programs cost as little as $10 per day.

About 40 percent of inmates who go through state prisons commit crimes and return. As many as 90 percent have mental health or substance abuse issues that, left untreated, contribute to their return, Oaks said.

Options are limited for women like Vaughn. But one option, L.I.F.E. Tech center for women in Wetumpka, combines treatment, education and 24-hour supervision, Oaks said. Goals are to change behavior, educate and prepare the inmate for work.

Only 4 percent of women completing L.I.F.E. Tech return but the program is under-used, Oaks said. About 600 women per year go through the individualized six-month program that could take 1,200. A similar program for men in Thomasville stays full.

Corrections Commissioner Richard Allen stresses the need for prison drug and mental health treatment each year during legislative budget hearings. Allen said failure to intervene is a recipe for a return to prison.

Oaks, Allen and Supreme Court Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb said the system’s overcrowding and funding problems mean the state must develop more alternatives for nonviolent offenders.

But solutions are a challenge.

Pressure to empty overcrowded prison beds coexists with a growing number of state laws encouraging stiffer sentences for nonviolent crimes and recidivists.

Judges concerned about inmates returning to their communities rapidly often use split sentencing to direct criminal punishment.

Oakes said a growing number of judges order split sentences that require a minimum amount of time in state prison before parole consideration. If a judge’s order does not allow for transfer to another type of facility, then the transfer cannot happen.

Cobb said probation officers who advise judges do not always recommend the alternatives either, but she urges judges to consider alternatives.

Corrections, Pardons and Paroles and the court system are working to identify nonviolent, split-sentence offenders who are appropriate for other facilities. Cobb asks judges to consider alternative sentencing for nonviolent offenders. Alternatives, especially community-based ones, allow offenders to work, provide for their families and pay court costs, fines and restitution, she said.

“There is an indisputable connection between mental health problems, drug abuse and criminal behavior,” Cobb said.

She wants drug courts in every county, well-coordinated community corrections programs, and sentencing, when appropriate, to the L.I.F.E. Tech centers. Alabama Sentencing Commission Director Linda Flint agrees with Cobb.

Bennet Wright, sentencing commission statistician, said state data shows that the vast majority of crimes women commit are nonviolent.

Wright said if more affordable drug and mental health treatment was available in the community, more judges might sentence to state prisons less often. Judges hesitate to sentence people with drug problems to outpatient care that leaves them free at night.

Currently 22 of the state’s 67 counties have no drug treatment programs, he said.

Sunday: Morgan County’s Drug Court.