In this July 29, 2020 file photograph, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey speaks throughout a information convention in Montgomery, Alabama. AP Photo/Kim Chandler
Alabama lawmakers are pushing ahead on a controversial plan to use COVID-19 relief funds to build new prisons, the Associated Press reported.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a invoice authorizing the use of $400 million from the American Rescue Plan to partially fund the new prisons.
Democrats have opposed the plan, arguing it is an improper use of the pandemic relief cash.
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Alabama lawmakers pushed ahead Friday on a controversial plan to spend $400 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to build two new prisons in the state.
According to the Associated Press, lawmakers in the state accepted a plan to assemble two new prisons and renovate present jail amenities for a complete of $1.3 billion, with $400 million coming from federal funding supplied to the state below President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan.
Six jail amenities would shut below the new plan, in accordance to the AP.
The $400 million is about 20% of the funding the state obtained below the ARP.
“This is a pivotal moment for the trajectory of our state’s criminal justice system,” GOP Gov. Kay Ivey stated at an occasion signing the laws, in accordance to a report from The Associated Press.
Republicans who supported the laws argued that the use of the funds was acceptable due to a provision of the $1.9 trillion plan that allowed states to allocate funds to complement misplaced income and bolster state providers, The Associated Press reported.
“This was the right thing for Alabama to do. We’ve got crumbling infrastructure. We’ve got people housed in places that are filthy. We’ve got individuals working in conditions that are unsafe,” Republican State Sen. Greg Albritton stated, per the AP.
Democrats, in the meantime, opposed the plan and argued it was an improper use of the ARP unds. US House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, a Democrat representing New York, despatched a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen this week asking that she step in to stop the ARP funds from getting used to assemble the prisons, the AP reported.
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“I would be surprised if that was the intention of the funding,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stated on Wednesday, in accordance to the report.
“There are many needs here in the state of Alabama and there are many people who need these funds,” Democratic State Rep. Juandalynn Givan stated, in accordance to the AP report. (*2*)
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