Governor hosts new corrections officer graduates

December 5, 2024 - MONTGOMERY, AL - Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) hosted 96 Correctional Officer Trainees (COTs) set to graduate from the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) Academy. No job is more in short supply in the state of Alabama and no need is more critical in this tight labor environment for state government.

The governor was thrilled to greet this massive class of graduates, the largest during her tenure, on the front steps of the Governor's Mansion. After the governor offered her congratulations and support, she invited the group inside the Mansion to enjoy a reception and to view the Christmas decorations.

"I was excited to welcome these 96 Correctional Officer Trainees to the 'People's House' today ahead of their graduation from the Academy," said Governor Ivey in a statement. "I was doubly proud to celebrate this largest ever class of Correctional Officers since I took office. I congratulate each of these graduates, and I know they will make a difference in keeping our people safe."

The 96 Correctional Officer graduates gave the governor a hearty 'thank you' for her dedicated leadership and commitment to law enforcement, including those that serve in the state's Corrections system.

On Friday, December 6, 2024, at 10:30 a.m., the 96 COTs will graduate from the Alabama Criminal Justice Training Center in Selma. The ceremony will be held at the Montgomery campus of Church of the Highlands. The trainees satisfactorily completed 10 consecutive weeks of training to obtain Alabama Peace Officers' Standard and Training Commission (APOSTC) certification and become Correctional Officers.

The Alabama Corrections System is almost universally viewed as the most dangerous in the nation. That prisoner-on-prisoner violence is more difficult to stop due to the obsolescence of many of Alabama's aged prisons along with chronic understaffing of ADOC's prisons. There is simply not enough prison guards to safely protect the prisoners or the staff. About four years ago a federal judge ordered the state of Alabama to hire an additional prison guards. ADOC, until recently, has struggled to meet those goals despite raising corrections officer pay and adding signing and retention bonuses.

President Obama's Attorney General Loretta Lynch ordered an investigation of the conditions of Alabama's prisons. That investigation was concluded under President Trump's Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions' report made damning allegations of murders, beatings, gang activity, and drug overdoses of Alabama prisoners. The state attempted to negotiate with the feds. Trump's last AG - William Barr filed a lawsuit against the state of Alabama arguing that a prison sentence in Alabama's prisons amounted to being a "cruel and unusual punishment" thus unconstitutional under the Bill of Rights - an assertion that the state has vigorously opposed. The state has spent $millions of dollars on outside law firms to defend itself against this lawsuit - which Biden's AG Merrick Garland never brought to trial. The state argues that the construction of two new megaprisons in Elmore and Escambia County will make the prisons safer while ADOC has worked to improve the mental health, medical, drug treatment, education, and job training services that the state provides its ~23,000 inmates receive. The Alabama Legislature passed significant justice reform legislation about 7 years ago to reduce the chronic overcrowding in the prisons. That legislation while effective at lowering the prison population to a point has been widely criticized by law enforcement as increasing crime and moving prisoners - particularly parole violators - from state custody to the county jails. The state hopes that these new corrections officers will help reduce the drugs and violence in the system while satisfying the concerns raised by the federal courts. The new megaprison have been delayed by site issues, change orders, and the statewide shortage of construction workers. Sources say that the two megaprisons will cost the state general fund in excess of $2.7 billion.

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