HB29, the Second Chance Bill, will be in House Judiciary today. I am honored to be the sponsor of such important legislation. Last session, with bipartisan support, this bill almost became law. Check out this video to see why this bill means so much.

Last session, a lot of misinformation was spread in an effort to stop this bill from receiving final passage. So, let’s get some of the basics out of the way so everyone will know and understand what this bill actually does. Here is a link to the bill. legislature.state.al.us/pdf/Searchable…

I’m retweeting this because I want to add to it. Another lawsuit was filed against the parole board this Thursday making it even more obvious how racially discriminatory our parole board is. The numbers you are about to see came from the lawsuit filed the last two weeks.

https://twitter.com/repengland70/status/1734660775002644540

From 2015-2018, the parole board used guidelines to help determine who could be safely paroled. The guidelines are objective standards created to help assess the “fitness” of individuals for parole, aimed at encouraging the release of those who posed a low risk of recidivism.

Wow. So, in other words, board chair Leigh Gwathney, whose exhaustive and detailed review of each case once allowed her to deny parole to a dead person, will continue to ignore guidelines based on actual data and just make up arbitrary BS to keep people in prison.

https://twitter.com/aldailynews/status/1692159600064344216

Seriously. The same person that once denied parole to a dead person is now trying to convince you that her extremely thorough review process of each case yields some super secret reason, that she can’t share with anyone, to deny 93% of the people who apply for parole.

For some reason, some people keep saying that the Human Life Protection Act only applies to doctors, clinics and medical providers. That’s not true at all. The HLPA says that It shall be unlawful for ANY PERSON to intentionally perform or attempt to perform an abortion. Also, there has been some debate about how the law will be enforced and what conduct will potentially carry criminal culpability. In my opinion, folks are making this too complicated. Let me explain why. First, take a look at the law in Alabama.

I’m so glad that @AGSteveMarshall wrote this that I wanted to make sure you saw it. He wrote this in opposition to HB57 which is a bill I sponsored. So, since it is out there now, let me correct some “misrepresentations” in it and also give you facts about pardons and paroles. HB57 would create the Criminal Justice Policy Development Council to update the inmate classification system; 2) create parole guidelines; 3) adopt a validated risk and needs assessment for felony offenders; and 4) provide quarterly reports to Legislature about the Council’s work

I know that those maps are tough to read and actually understand. I am just frustrated as you are. So, here is something else to use to get a better look at the maps. #alpolitics #Alabama #redistricting #SpecialSession2021 #reapportionment Here is the proposed Congressional district map. davesredistricting.org/maps#viewmap::… #alpolitics #Alabama #redistricting #SpecialSession2021 #reapportionment

The Committee on Reapportionment will be meeting on Tuesday, October 26 at 1 PM in Rm.317 at the Statehouse. Here are the proposed Congressional, State School Board, and the Alabama House and Senate district maps along with accompanying underlying demographic data. #redistricting Proposed Congressional district map with underlying population demographic information. #alpolitics #Alabama #redistricting #SpecialSession2021 #reapportionment

Leigh Gwathney was appointed Chair of Pardons and Paroles in October 2019. The last time I tweeted about this, the numbers were from January 2021 to June 2021. To get a clearer picture of the problem, I requested the numbers from when she was appointed. They are not pretty. Let’s talk pardons. Here are the numbers from Nov. 2019 to June 2021.

White Applicants? 601 granted, 1565 denied.

Black Applicants? 313 granted, 1792 denied.

Hispanic Applicants? 2 granted, 15 denied.

Of the 916 pardons that were given 65% of them went to White Applicants

If Wednesday was the final act of Donald Trump’s circus, @RepMoBrooks is one of the ringmasters. For weeks now, he has been lying to the public and whipping people into a frenzy that he and crew were going to “stop the steal” Wednesday. Check his Twitter feed for the last month. Speeches and statements pushing debunked conspiracy theories based on absolutely nothing. Also, promising that they were going to use their power to overturn the election even after his own Republican colleagues said it wasn’t possible.

The #AlabamaMemorialPreservationAct is bad law that creates even worse results. The spirit of it is wrong. But, if you ever wanted to see what the wrong side of history looks like in video format, here you go.

https://twitter.com/agstevemarshall/status/1330922890204745733

Here is a fun fact. The $25,000 fine he argues applies to monuments over 40 years old actually doesn’t apply. It only applies to monuments between 20-40 years old. Also, it only applies to people that didn’t apply for a waiver before removing a 20-40 year old monument.

Alabama is another step closer to spending at least 2.6 billion on building three new prisons for men. I have never seen people so happy to spend this much money on a plan that doesn’t solve the problem, creates generational debt, and doesn’t buy us anything at all. #alpolitics Let’s get a few things out of the way. You are going to hear that we are signing a 30 year lease. We aren’t. We can’t. It’s illegal. So instead, this “arrangement” is going to be a series of 30 1 year leases that will have to be renegotiated every year. #alpolitics

Ever since I tweeted about my experience with John Lewis and also about my Dad, Judge John Henry England Jr., reading the resolution renaming Nott Hall, many people have contacted me and asked to know more about him. Well, let me tell you a few things. He was born in Uniontown but grew up in Birmingham. He graduated @TuskegeeUniv in 1969. He was pretty active in college. Example? He may have been involved in locking the administration up in their offices during a protest. However, he also made time for the ignorant bench too.

Congressman John Lewis is a true American hero. I had an opportunity as a kid to meet him. It is a story that I carry with me that changed my life. If you will indulge me, I would like to share it. When I was younger, my dad, Judge John England, used to force me, my brother, and my sister to go to Selma. To be perfectly honest, I used to hate it but it didn’t matter. He made us go. One time in particular, it was to participate in a renactment of Bloody Sunday.

.@GovernorKayIvey, we need to have a special session on criminal justice reform. Since @USAttyTown came to Montgomery and told us that our prison system was worse than the death penalty, conditions have gotten worse. @ALCorrections and @ALBPP are working against reform. Let’s talk @ALBPP first. Remember the law we passed to “reform” the Parole board? Well, since that bill passed and you appointed Charlie Graddick, only two things have changed, the name to “Bureau” and they basically do not grant parole at all now.