We can't ship everyone to the bayou

Alabama prison commissioner Richard Allen, whose job you probably wouldn't want, is confident that his proposals will shrink the state's prison's rolls enough that a federal judge won't throw him in jail for contempt of court. The short-term plan to remove state prisoners from county jails includes more reliance on transition centers and "technical" violators centers for parolees who fail a drug test, as well as sending more inmates to rented space in Louisiana prisons. Meanwhile, Allen's longer-term hopes to ease the burden on Alabama's underfunded corrections system, which operates at more than 200 percent capacity, rest heavily with the state's new voluntary sentencing guidelines.