LETTER TO THE EDITOR | "Governor Ivey: Alabama Won’t Tolerate Your Fear Mongering"
Today, while ignoring pleas and demands from a variety of individuals and organizations throughout the state, Gov. Kay Ivey signed lease agreements for CoreCivic to construct new prisons in Tallassee and near Atmore. Along with the announcement of these contracts, her office released a "Fact Sheet" listing a number of supposed justifications for signing the contracts so urgently and secretly. The last — and perhaps most egregious — of these is her statement that “a mass prison release of incarcerated individuals is more likely if the Alabama Prison Program does not move forward now.” Here, Gov. Ivey is painting an image of our streets overrun with crime, and telling us that the only solution is to move forward with this plan, which has failed to be transparent to the public and even Alabama legislators.This fear-mongering is both untrustworthy and cruel.