Andrew Jarecki

And meantime, the DOJ did not say to build any new prisons.

The DOJ said, your problem is with corruption and brutality and you're operating really a criminal enterprise and therefore you need to address the underlying problems.

And Alabama's response was, well, the DOJ says the prisons are no good so we got to build new ones.

Yeah, exactly.

So we always call it the Alabama Department of Construction because they don't really change anything unless they have the opportunity to build something.

And that's really good for all the governor's supporters and all the other people who are in the construction industry.

And they've now started construction.

On these massive new prisons, Alabama is a tiny state.

It's like a smaller population, I think, than Norway.

And they've got a tiny budget, and yet they figure out how to put together a multibillion-dollar prison construction plan.

They can't fund it at first.

The governor announces she's going to build these new prisons, which the DOJ did not ask for it.

and are not going to solve the problem.

And they admit, by the way, that they're not going to affect overcrowding, which is a huge problem.

The prisons are operating at like 200% capacity.

And when they're asked about it, the head of the Department of Corrections, they ask him, is this going to affect the overcrowding or is it just the same number of beds?

And he goes, no, it's the same number of beds.

It's not going to affect overcrowding.

So they're building these massive new facilities.

The governor can't get them paid for.