The number of state inmates in county jails beyond the 30-day limit has reached zero, Gov. Bob Riley and Corrections Commissioner Richard Allen said Tuesday.

This was welcome news to Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely, who said it has been a long time coming.

“I think it’s great,” the sheriff said. “But they are doing this at the expense of public safety.”

The sheriff questioned why the state is turning some inmates loose and moving others to prisons in Mississippi and Louisiana to ease overcrowding in state prisons.

Last week, the sheriff was outraged when he learned the State Board of Pardons and Paroles in Montgomery had granted parole to four convicted murderers from Limestone County. That action also drew criticism from state Sen. Tom Butler, who has asked for all members of the parole board to resign and rescind the parole order.

Limestone County Jail Lt. Vanessa Rich said while Limestone County still has a few state inmates housed in jail, the state is obeying the court order.

“They are moving them as fast as they can,” Rich said. “The court order says they have 30 days after the transcript from the court is received by the State Department of Corrections. They have been moving them as directed by the court.”

A backlog of 800 prisoners in January has been eliminated and we will work to keep it that way,” Riley said. “New efforts by the Department of Corrections during the past few months have resulted in the elimination of this backlog. I congratulate Commissioner Allen and all the staff at the Department of Corrections for achieving this goal.”

Riley and his administration inherited a backlog of almost 1,600 state inmates in county jails over the 30-day limit when they came into office in January 2003. That backlog was eliminated in late 2004 and remained at zero for about a year before it began building up again.

Riley appointed Allen as corrections commissioner in February.  Since then, the Alabama Department of Corrections has implemented a plan to identify and address several issues, including the backlog of inmates in county jails.

One part of the plan involved reconfiguring several existing prisons to open up more space for prisoners. ADOC created about 850 new beds by restructuring several facilities. Closing Bullock County Work Release and using its staff to help open a mental-health unit inside Bullock Correctional Facility have created an additional 250 beds.

Construction underway at the Limestone Correctional Facility at Capshaw will create an additional 300 beds. The conversion of the Montgomery Work Center, already inside the fence at Kilby Prison, to a pre-release center will enable the state to house up to 250 inmates there. In addition, ADOC recently signed a contract to house 600 prisoners at a private prison in Louisiana. ADOC currently houses more than 300 female inmates and about 500 male inmates at private prison facilities in Louisiana.

Rich said only a few state inmates remain in the 288-inmate -capacity jail in Limestone County. She said at one time the county housed as many as 40 state inmates who had served 30 days or more.

“One of Gov. Riley’s mandates to me when I took this job was to eliminate this longstanding problem between ADOC and the counties.  In just a few months, we have been able to reduce the backlog back to zero,” Commissioner Allen said.  “This was truly a department-wide effort, and we won’t let up now.”

Riley’s Task Force on Prison Crowding also addressed this issue and provided a road map to include sentencing reform, more community corrections programs, technical violator centers and additional beds.