Groups seek Congressional probe of Alabama plan to build prisons with COVID relief dollars

Nearly two dozen organizations have sent a letter questioning Governor Kay Ivey’s plan on prison building. The construction would be funded using federal COVID-19 relief dollars. The groups are asking the U.S. House Financial Services Committee to investigate the plan to use $400 million dollars in pandemic relief funds to build two super-sized prisons. The American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, The Sentencing Project and others signed on to a letter arguing that it is improper use of the relief dollars. They asked U.S. House Financial Service Chairwoman Maxine Waters to hold hearings on the matter. The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Alabama over a prison system it said was riddled with prisoner-on-prisoner and guard-on-prisoner violence. The governor's office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The APR news team’s six month investigation of the Alabama prison system was honored with a national Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Click below to listen again.