Resource: Fact Sheet

Summer EBT for 2025

By Alabama Arise

A $15 million appropriation for Summer EBT would reduce hunger by providing eligible Alabama children $40 per summer month for food.

1 in 4 Alabama children are food insecure.

Hundreds of thousands of Alabama children don’t know where their next meal will come from. And a disproportionate amount of food insecure children come from communities of color. The Summer EBT program has been shown to help alleviate this problem by reducing hunger and supporting healthier diets among children.

545,000 Alabama children will miss meals this summer.

Providing funding for Summer EBT would ensure that hundreds of thousands of Alabama children don’t have to go hungry next summer. In recent years, 94% of Alabama’s children who received free or reduced-price school meals during the school year did not have access to these meals over the summer.

Summer EBT could spur around $100 million in economic activity.

This program would require an initial appropriation of $15 million yet will deliver a substantially higher return on investment. This appropriation could come from either the Education Trust Fund or the General Fund. Also worth noting: The costs of operating this program would decrease in future years.

Call center* – $5 – 8 million
EBT cost* – $4 – 5 million
DHR expenses* – $500,000
Application administration** – $9.5 – 15.5 million (website design, interface, hearings, QC, notices)
Department of Education expenses* – $1 million

Total = maximum of $30 million
State share = 50% | maximum of $15 million

* Cost estimates are based on Alabama’s experience with similar characteristics of Summer P-EBT cost from 2020-2024
** Cost estimates are based on new criteria in Summer EBT rules and similar vendor cost provided from other states participating in 2024

Summer EBT key points:

  • Summer EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) provides eligible children $40 per summer month ($120 total).
  • 1 in 4 Alabama children are food insecure, with a disproportionate amount coming from households of color.
  • 94% of Alabama children who receive free or reduced-price meals do not have access to them over the summer.
  • Summer EBT is a $15 million state investment in child nutrition, with a $1 for $1 federal match, that could spur around $100 million in economic activity annually across Alabama.
  • The Summer EBT program could reduce hunger and support healthier diets for more than half a million (545,000) Alabama children.

Investing in the Public Transportation Trust Fund

By Alabama Arise

Inadequate funding for public transportation keeps thousands of people across Alabama from meeting basic needs. Unreliable bus systems cause people to be late for work, risking the loss of their jobs. If parents have a car that breaks down in rural Alabama, their children may miss doctors’ appointments, school and other activities because public transit options are booked well ahead of time. Older Alabamians with no car may be unable even to buy groceries. Without reliable rides, people needing medical care miss check-ups and treatments, worsening Alabama’s rural health crisis.

Even when transit systems work, they fall far short of meeting public needs. No public transit system in Alabama operates past 11 p.m., even on weekends. And many rural lines operate by appointment only from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Alabama must do more to meet the challenge of connecting its people to jobs, education and services.

A 1952 amendment to Alabama’s constitution (Amendment 93) makes it illegal to use state gasoline tax revenues for anything other than building and maintaining roads and bridges. As a result, the most logical source of state funding for transit, a source all our neighboring states use, remains off limits in Alabama. Without dedicated state transit funding, Alabamians will continue to lack public transportation options that residents of other states enjoy. Building a modern public transit infrastructure certainly would provide a job-creating boost for economic development.

The Alabama Public Transportation Trust Fund (PTTF), created in 2018, could help fix our transit issues, but the Legislature has never funded it. The return on transit investment would make this a wise use of public funds. Every $1 million invested in transit creates 49 full-time jobs, which are long-term jobs with good pay. A state appropriation of $50 million would allow Alabama to harness up to $200 million in federal matching funds for capital improvements, and it could double the investment for operations expenses.

BOTTOM LINE: Alabama public transit needs state investment to provide the same services as our neighboring states. Now is the time to invest in public transportation and ensure all Alabamians can get where they need to go.

Support SB 91 to fund public transit, increase workforce participation and improve lives

● Alabama is late to the table on state funding for public transit. All four of our neighboring states fund public transportation.

● Our state leaves millions in federal matching funds on the table every year. The federal matching rate for capital improvements is up to 400% of state investment. For operations, federal grants can double state investment.

● Every $1 million spent on operations creates 50 jobs. These jobs provide good benefits and an average operator’s salary of more than $70,000.

● Alabama’s public transit options are limited because of the lack of public funds. No Alabama public transit service operates past 11 p.m., even on weekends.

● Companies and workers identify transportation needs as one of the biggest current barriers to workforce participation.

What would SB 91 do if passed?

● Passing SB 91 would provide a dedicated funding source for public transit needs. SB 91 would provide about $25 million in state funding each year to the Public Transportation Trust Fund (PTTF), which the state created in 2018 but has not yet funded.

● With the federal match, SB 91 would fuel up to $125 million worth of transit projects every year. These investments would create high-quality, stable jobs and help build infrastructure to support Alabamians’ workforce participation.

● Flexibility in the PTTF would allow the state to help stabilize struggling rural counties while also supporting infrastructure needs in rapidly growing regions.

It’s time to expand Medicaid and close Alabama’s coverage gap

By Alabama Arise

  1. Nearly 300,000 Alabamians with low incomes would benefit from Medicaid expansion.

  • People in the coverage gap earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough for an affordable private health insurance plan on the Marketplace. This leaves them in the health coverage gap.
  • The vast majority of people who would gain coverage through Medicaid expansion are working. More than 100,000 Alabamians in the coverage gap hold jobs that are important but pay low wages. Thousands more are self-employed, serve as caregivers or attend school.

  1. We can afford it. Closing the health coverage gap comes with a $619 million signing bonus.

  • States that close their coverage gap will receive a 5-percentage-point increase in the federal match rate for Medicaid for two years. This is thanks to an incentive in the American Rescue Plan Act.
  • An increased federal match rate would bring $619 million to Alabama over the next two years.
  • The state’s cost to close the gap in the first two years would be roughly $423 million. That means nearly $200 million in additional federal funding would come to our state above and beyond the cost to extend Medicaid coverage up to hard-working Alabamians.

  1. Closing the coverage gap helps workers stay employed.

  • Nearly half of Alabama workers do not get employer-sponsored health insurance. Closing the coverage gap could help employees get access to the health care services they need.
  • States that have closed the coverage gap have seen a greater increase in labor force participation among people with low incomes than in non-expansion states.
  • Injuries or manageable illnesses like diabetes can get so severe for those without health coverage that they prevent people from working or leading healthy lives.

  1. Nineteen rural hospitals are at immediate risk of closing. Medicaid expansion can keep them operating.

  • Alabama’s rural hospitals are on life support, but research shows that a rural hospital being located in a Medicaid expansion state decreases the likelihood it will close by an average of 62%.
  • Expanding Medicaid will help more rural residents afford health care services and reduce the financial losses experienced at hospitals from serving uninsured patients or providing uncompensated care.

  1. 5,000 Alabama veterans have no military insurance and can’t afford health coverage.

  • It’s a common misconception that people who serve in the U.S. military automatically receive lifetime eligibility for health coverage and other benefits. In reality, veterans’ health benefits depend on their length of service, military classification, type of discharge and other factors.
  • 14.2% of veterans are employed in the service industry, while 13.7% work in construction and maintenance. These are among the professions that would most benefit from Medicaid expansion.

How can Alabama ensure Summer EBT for 2025?

By LaTrell Clifford Wood

What is Summer EBT?

Inspired by Pandemic EBT (P-EBT), Summer EBT provides $120* in SNAP benefits per categorically eligible child throughout the summer months. (*Indexed for inflation). 

What Can Alabama Do Today? 

Alabama can pull down federal matching funds in 2024 to support implementation in 2025, according to the USDA’s Interim Final Rule for the program.

This would require a $15 million  state appropriation to help refine Alabama’s application process.

Why Does it Matter? 

1 in 4 Alabama children are experiencing food insecurity. Hundreds of thousands of Alabama children struggle with hunger even more during the summer because they no longer receive free school meals.

Who Would Benefit? 

545,000 children across Alabama

What would be the Economic Impact?

$98 Million to $117 Million annually

Join Alabama Arise 

Visit alarise.org to sign up for alerts and donate to become an Arise member today!

It’s time for Alabama to prove we care about mothers and children

By Akiesha Anderson

Healthy parents and healthy children mean a healthier future for Alabama. Comprehensive maternal and infant health care investments are crucial to ensure the health and safety of both infants and Alabamians of child-bearing age, especially postpartum mothers, pregnant women and future mothers.

Alabama Arise envisions a world in which each successive generation is ensured a secure and healthy future. By adopting policy solutions to increase the number of health care providers and extend health coverage to more people, Alabama lawmakers can help turn that vision of a brighter future into a reality.

A deadly problem

Alabama has the highest maternal mortality rate in the nation. Similarly, Alabama’s infant death rates are higher than those in most other states. Alabama has the nation’s third highest infant death rate, behind only Mississippi and Arkansas.

Another sobering fact accompanies these stark realities: Black infants and Black Alabamians who give birth experience higher mortality rates than their white and Hispanic counterparts. In fact, the infant mortality rate for Black babies is 1.5 times higher than the state average and nearly twice as high as the infant mortality rate for white babies. Similarly, Black mothers in Alabama are twice as likely to die during childbirth as their white counterparts.

Contributing factors

No one specific factor is solely responsible for the poor maternal and infant outcomes in Alabama. Rather, numerous challenges have combined to cause and worsen the situation. Listed below are a few of the key ones.

Maternity care deserts: Perhaps the most alarming factor is the prevalence of maternity care deserts in Alabama. A maternity care desert is defined as a county or area where there is a lack of access to maternity care resources. These areas often have no obstetric providers and no birth centers or hospitals offering obstetric care.

More than one-third of Alabama counties are maternity care deserts, with some people having to drive up to 100 miles to reach the nearest labor and delivery department. The lack of essential delivery and prenatal care in the Black Belt and other areas worsens the state’s maternal and infant health disparities, especially for women with low incomes.

Lack of Medicaid expansion: Alabama has a high rate of women of childbearing age who are uninsured. Nearly 300,000 Alabamians find themselves in the state’s health coverage gap. They make too much money to qualify for Medicaid, yet too little to afford private health insurance. In Alabama, 1 in 6 women aged 18 to 44 – or roughly 16% – are uninsured.

Alabama has the nation’s sixth highest rate of uninsured women of childbearing age. Research shows that Medicaid expansion is associated with lower rates of infant and maternal mortality as well as with improvements in preconception health care access and health care use before pregnancy. But Alabama remains one of only 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid to cover adults with low incomes.

Limitations resulting from state policies: Across the nation, the leading cause of infant mortality is birth defects. One in five infant deaths results from severe birth defects. But Alabama fails to screen many newborns for several rare but treatable diseases. One likely reason for that shortcoming is a lack of dedicated state funding for such screenings.

Chemical endangerment laws also lead many doctors to forgo screenings that could help catch addiction-related issues for expecting parents. Instead of incentivizing appropriate screening, treatment and harm reduction, these laws criminalize addiction and cause more harm, according to the Alabama Maternal Mortality Review Committee.

Administrative choices for Medicaid: Numerous other policy changes could promote better health for parents and infants across Alabama. Among the March of Dimes’ recommendations are “improved integration of the midwifery model of care, reimbursement for doula care, and increasing the availability of telehealth services.” Medicaid also could allow reimbursement for donor breast milk.

Impacts of the abortion ban: Alabama’s abortion ban is considered one of the nation’s most restrictive. Infants born in states with the most restrictive abortion laws are “significantly more likely to die before their first birthday than [a]re those born in states with no restrictions,” a 2020 study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found. In addition, the exceptions to Alabama’s ban are inadequate to protect the health of the parent.

Where do we go from here?

Alabama Arise is committed to learning more about and advocating for policy solutions to improve maternal and infant health outcomes in the state. This will include advocacy for Medicaid expansion to close Alabama’s health coverage gap. We also will monitor and aim to support administrative efforts to promote better maternal and infant health.

Universal school breakfast would benefit Alabama’s children in many ways

By LaTrell Clifford Wood

 

Universal school breakfast would:

Improve the state of child hunger in Alabama.

  • 23% of school-age children in Alabama are food insecure.
  • Universal school breakfast could guarantee a morning meal for nearly 280,000 Alabama children during their required school day.

Address chronic absenteeism.

  • Alabama’s statewide chronic absenteeism more than doubled from 8% to 18% in 2023 after schools stopped serving universal school meals.

Improve adolescent mental health.

  • Young adults who reported experiencing food insecurity during childhood also reported greater psychological distress in adulthood, according to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data.

Improve standardized testing and math scores in Alabama.

  • Alabama ranks 46th in average math ACT scores.
  • Student academic achievement increases, especially for math, when accessible breakfasts are made available to school-age children.

Alleviate behavioral problems and the school-to-prison pipeline.

  • Alabama children ages 10 and up are detained at nearly twice the national average, with children of color detained twice as frequently as their white peers.
  • The School Breakfast Program originated from a community pilot program that demonstrated the positive impact of universal breakfast for Black school-age children specifically.

Vote ‘No’ on SB 1 – narrowing voting rights in Alabama

By Mike Nicholson

Alabama’s absentee voting application process is already safe and secure. We don’t need to add confusing and frightening requirements to an already secure process.

  • This bill would make it a crime for any person knowingly to provide or receive funding or a gift for distributing, ordering, requesting, collecting, prefilling, completing, obtaining or delivering another person’s absentee ballot application.
  • Making it a crime to assist people in the absentee ballot application process is completely unnecessary. It would create a chilling effect on voters as they become more fearful of an already difficult process.
  • This legislation reflects an untrue and dangerous narrative about voting rights and the voting process in our state. Former Secretary of State John Merrill repeatedly has gone on record to say the 2020 election was safe and that few, if any, instances of voter fraud occurred.

This bill likely would have unintended consequences. Innocent people would become the victims of partisan warfare.

  • The stated intent of this legislation is to ensure that people don’t profit from, or take advantage of, the absentee ballot process. However, because the penalties are so severe, they almost certainly would scare people who are attempting to assist voters who legitimately need help.
  • If prosecuted under this bill, a person could be charged with up to a Class B felony. That is the same offense level as first-degree manslaughter, and it carries up to a 20-year prison sentence.

We need to expand voting rights, not make voting more difficult.

  • Alabama has a shameful history when it comes to preventing groups from voting in our state. We have long been at the center of the battle for civil rights and too often on the wrong side of history.
  • Our 1901 state constitution was written explicitly to establish white supremacy and disenfranchise Black and poor white Alabamians. This shameful legacy unfortunately persists in many aspects of our state’s voting process today.
  • Alabama already has some of the strictest voting procedures in the country. This bill would be one more attempt in a long line of attempts going back more than 100 years to limit democratic participation in Alabama. We need to remove unnecessary voting barriers, not create more of them.

Vote ‘No’ on SB 1 – narrowing voting rights in Alabama

  1. Alabama’s absentee voting application process is already safe and secure. We don’t need to add provisions that could confuse or frighten people or discourage them from participating in our democracy.
  2. This bill likely would have real and unintended consequences for people who are just trying to help their friends or family members vote.
  3. Alabama already has some of the strictest voting laws in the nation. We should be making it easier, not harder, for people to be part of the democratic process.

 

Updated Feb. 7, 2024, to reflect changes to SB 1 by the Senate State Governmental Affairs Committee.

Explaining Alabama’s state grocery tax reduction: What it covers and what it doesn’t

By Carol Gundlach

The sales tax may seem less visible than other taxes because we pay it in small bits, unlike once-a-year property and income tax payments. But in reality, the sales tax is the most regressive of Alabama’s three major state taxes (income, property and sales). It consumes a much greater portion of the household budget for families with low and middle incomes than it does for wealthier families.

Sales taxes on food and other necessities add to the financial strain facing families who struggle to make ends meet. Fortunately, Alabama’s new grocery tax reduction will help ease that strain and make our state’s tax system more just.

How the new law changes sales tax rates

Alabama’s state sales tax rate (4%) is lower than that of most states. But in addition to the state sales tax, people also must pay local sales taxes when shopping. When you add in local sales taxes, the combined Alabama sales tax rate – averaging 9% – is among the nation’s highest. Combined municipal, county and state sales taxes range from 7% in the Kansas community (in Walker County) to 12% in Ohatchee (in Calhoun County).

 

HB 479 reduced the state portion of the sales tax on food from 4% to 3%, effective Sept. 1, 2023. Another reduction to 2% will come in September 2024, or the first year afterward when education revenues grow by at least 3.5%. This means that in a locality with a 9% combined sales tax rate, the overall food tax is now 8%. That reduction will save Alabamians the equivalent of about half a week’s groceries each year.

The new law allows – but does not require – cities and counties to reduce their sales taxes on groceries. Most have not, citing the difficulty of securing other revenue sources due to limits on their ability to levy other local taxes imposed by the state constitution.

What does and does not qualify as ‘food’ under the law

The new law reduces the sales tax on “food,” defined as anything eligible to be purchased with benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This federal definition of “food” does apply to a broad range of foods and drinks, including:

  • Fruits and vegetables (fresh, frozen or canned)
  • Meat, poultry and fish
  • Dairy products
  • Breads and cereal
  • Snack foods and non-alcoholic beverages 

However, not everything qualifies for the grocery tax reduction. It does not apply to prepared meals served at restaurants or to most other hot, precooked foods. And it does not apply to many other items commonly purchased in a grocery store or the grocery section of “big box” stores like Walmart, Costco or Target. Items taxed at the new, lower rate do not include:

  • Foods that are purchased hot
  • Household cleaning supplies or paper products
  • Pet food
  • Alcohol or tobacco
  • Vitamins, cosmetics and hygiene items

Items not defined as “food” are still subject to the 4% state sales tax and the full local tax. This is true even if the items are sold at a grocery store or a retailer with a grocery section. Your receipts may show separate subtotals to reflect the different sales tax rates that apply to food and other items. (Look up your local sales tax rates here.)

What should happen next

Implementation of the grocery tax reduction ran into brief first-day hiccups at some stores, leading to some initial confusion. But one thing should be crystal clear and easy to understand: Reducing the sales tax on food will make life better for every Alabamian.

The new state grocery tax reduction will combat hunger and make it easier for Alabama families to afford food. And eventually eliminating the rest of the state grocery tax would help even more. Alabama Arise is committed to continue working to untax groceries responsibly and sustainably in future legislative sessions.

How will the grocery tax reduction law (HB 479) benefit every Alabamian?

By Alabama Arise

HB 479 by Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, is a grocery tax reduction law that will benefit every Alabamian. Gov. Kay Ivey signed it into law June 15 after it passed the House 103-0 and the Senate 31-0. Below is a look at the principles that make a grocery tax reform bill good, what the new law does and what Alabamians need next.

Alabama Arise supporters gather outside the State House in Montgomery during Arise’s Legislative Day on April 11, 2023. More than 100 Alabamians came to urge their lawmakers to end the state sales tax on groceries.

What makes a grocery tax reform bill good for Alabamians

  • Provides a tax cut for families with low incomes across Alabama (not just wealthy households).
  • Protects education revenue to ensure our children’s classrooms are adequately funded in the years to come.
  • Is broad enough to have a meaningful and long-lasting impact.
  • Provides an immediate grocery tax reduction.

Provisions of the new law

  • Provides a tax cut for all Alabamians, cutting the current 4-cent tax in half as soon as September 2024.
  • Limits detrimental impacts to the Education Trust Fund (ETF) by making this tax cut contingent on projected growth to the ETF.
  • Is a broad, long-term tax cut on a wide range of foods, not just a limited subset.
  • Provides an immediate grocery tax reduction beginning Sept. 1, 2023.

What we need next

  • A complete elimination of the state grocery tax, rather than just part of it.
  • An active replacement of grocery tax revenue in the Education Trust Fund budget, such as elimination of the state deduction for federal income taxes (FIT) and other reforms of Alabama’s upside-down tax system.

Why is HB 479 a good plan to untax groceries?

  • It provides a tax cut on groceries for families with low incomes across Alabama (not just wealthy households).

    • The sales tax on groceries is a cruel tax on survival, driving struggling Alabamians deeper into poverty. The 4-cent state grocery tax costs a family of four about $600 a year, based on estimates using the moderate-cost food plan from the USDA’s cost of food at home reports.
    • This law will reduce Alabama’s 4-cent state sales tax on groceries to 2 cents in two steps. The cut will be 1 cent in 2023 and another 1 cent in 2024, assuming that projected ETF revenues grow by at least 3.5%. If they don’t, the reduction will occur in the first year when revenue growth does meet that threshold. This reduction will be an important step toward eliminating this regressive tax that makes it harder for families to make ends meet.
    • What’s missing? An ideal grocery tax proposal would eliminate the state’s entire 4-cent grocery tax, rather than just half of it. This is a cause for which Alabama Arise will continue to advocate.

  • It protects education revenue to ensure our children’s classrooms are adequately funded in the years to come.

    • Lawmakers should ensure proposals to untax groceries protect funding for public schools while making life better for struggling families across our state. 
    • The law specifies that the second half of the tax cut will occur on Sept. 1, 2024, if projected growth in total net ETF receipts for 2025 is at least 3.5%. If not, the cut will occur in the first year afterward when receipts do grow by that amount.
    • What’s missing? Alabama ultimately needs a concrete replacement for grocery tax revenues in the ETF budget to ensure we are good stewards of our children’s school funding.
      • Phasing out the federal income tax (FIT) deduction, a tax loophole that overwhelmingly benefits the richest 10% of Alabamians, would allow the state to eliminate the entire state grocery tax sustainably. This policy solution also would protect hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of education funding each year.

  • It is broad enough to have a meaningful and long-lasting impact.

    • This tax cut applies broadly to eligible foods under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), rather than only foods eligible under the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. The SNAP definition covers more food items and will make implementation clear. This is a long-term solution, not a one-time or temporary fix.

  • It provides an immediate grocery tax reduction.

    • Beginning Sept. 1, 2023, the state grocery tax will fall to 3 cents. This 1-cent reduction could provide a family of four with an immediate annual tax cut of about $150.
    • As prices continue to rise on many of the essentials that folks need to survive, every dollar helps families across Alabama who are struggling now to make ends meet.

This fact sheet was updated on June 16, 2023, to reflect the final text of HB 479 as enacted.

It’s time to provide older Alabamians with a second chance: Pass Rep. England’s HB 229

By Alabama Arise

Alabama’s prison population has steadily been getting older and more expensive to house. 

  • In 2005, about 36% of people in Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) custody were between ages 15 and 30. By 2021, that number had been halved and is now around 18%. 
  • Our state’s crime rate fell dramatically – by nearly 17% – from 2005 to 2019. 
  • This aging trend among incarcerated Alabamians will have an enormous impact on our state’s ability to pay for and house people in prison, now and in the future.

We can’t afford – financially or morally – to keep incarcerating people who were convicted of offenses involving no physical injury and who already have served more than 20 years.

  • The falling crime rate and the severely harsh nature of Alabama’s 1977 three-strikes law mean the share of older people in ADOC custody who were convicted of offenses involving no physical injury but have lengthy sentences has grown dramatically over time.
  • This has resulted in a disproportionately older and more expensive prison population. And it has contributed greatly to severe prison overcrowding, leading to a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit.
  • These older inmates are the least likely to reoffend but the most costly to incarcerate, most commonly due to health care costs. Between 2000 and 2022, the state’s aging prison population contributed to a dramatic increase in the cost of incarceration. In this period, the average cost of incarceration per inmate rose from about $25 a day to more than $80, a cost increase of 220%.

HB 229 would allow a narrow group of people who were convicted of offenses involving no physical injury and who already have served more than 20 years of a life sentence a chance to petition for resentencing.

  • Only a narrow group of people serving enhanced sentences due to three-strikes guidelines would have the chance to be resentenced. This one-time opportunity would expire within five years.
  • Incarcerated individuals would qualify for resentencing only if all of the following apply:
    1. Their sentence was not the result of an offense causing serious physical injury to another person.
    2. They were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
    3. They received a final sentence at a trial court prior to May 26, 2000. 

The bottom line: We need to reform Alabama’s three-strikes law.

  • This bill would offer the possibility of resentencing only to older people who are incarcerated for offenses involving no physical injury and who already have served more than 20 years of a life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) sentence.
  • Alabama’s punitive sentencing practices have caused disproportionate harm to people with low incomes and people of color. This bill would be one important step to begin addressing some of the injustices resulting from those practices.

It’s time to provide older Alabamians with a second chance: Pass Rep. England’s HB 229

  • Alabama’s prison population has steadily been getting older and more expensive to house, adding to the state’s overcrowding problem.
  • We can’t afford – financially or morally – to keep housing people who were convicted of offenses involving no physical injury and who already have served more than 20 years.
  • HB 229 would allow a narrow group of people who were convicted of offenses involving no physical injury and who already have served more than 20 years of a life sentence a chance to petition for resentencing.
  • We need to reform Alabama’s three-strikes law. This bill would help address the injustices of sentencing practices that disproportionately have harmed people with low incomes and people of color.
A line graph showing the number of people aged 15-30 in Alabama prisons was cut in half from 2005 to 2021. ALEA says crime fell by 17%.
Data and graphic shared by Alabama Appleseed in its report “New Prisons for Old Men.”