Judge fines state for jails' backlog

A Montgomery judge fined the state $2.16 million Friday for failing to remove hundreds of convicts from Alabama's county jails and again threatened to throw the prison commissioner in jail if conditions don't improve.

It's a switcheroo! Actually, it sounds like a bad movie, probably starring Joe Pesci, except he already made that one... The state is basically dumping its overcrowding problems on the counties by neglecting to pick up prisoners bound for state prisons. There are about a thousand state prisoners in county jails now.