Prisons, education, taxes, trust in government. What do Alabamians think?
See the Full Survey A slight majority of Alabamians oppose building new prisons, but an overwhelming majority support expanding rehabilitation and re-entry programs for people leaving prison, returning nonviolent offenders to the community, and spending more on education. These are among the key findings of the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama’s Public Opinion Survey: […]
Alabama’s Prison System: A Crisis in Corrections
How we view, value, and fund the justice system generally, and prisons, in particular, is complex and value-laden, particularly in Alabama. Our prisons have been marked by violence, overcrowding, poor healthcare, and federal court intervention for more than a century. Our current crisis is again brought into focus through a series of recent and current […]
Crime and Public Safety Ranks #7 Among Alabama Voter Priorities
In late 2017, the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) surveyed Alabama voters to determine their thoughts about the general direction of the state and the issues that most concern them. PARCA partnered with Samford University to survey policy professionals from across the state including academics, journalists, business and nonprofit leaders, and lobbyists. Their […]
Lackluster 2016 Receipts to General Fund and ETF
Both the accounts that pay for state government operations, the General Fund and the Education Trust Fund (ETF), ended the 2016 Fiscal Year basically flat when compared to the previous year, a sign that the state’s struggles to balance budgets will continue in the future. What would have been a moderately healthy year of receipts to […]
PARCA Poll of Public Attitudes on Taxes, Education, Corrections and Medicaid
According to a new poll of public opinion commissioned by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, state residents would be willing to pay more in taxes to avoid budget cuts in key areas like education, health care, and public safety. However, the public remains distrustful of government’s ability to spend tax dollars wisely. The […]
Alabama’s Corrections Conundrum
The Alabama Department of Corrections has jurisdiction over more than 32,000 individuals who’ve been convicted of a crime and are serving sentences in prisons, work release centers, supervised reentry programs, and community-based corrections programs. That’s more than double the number of convicts the system had in its charge in 1990, but over that same period, […]