Alabama lawmakers approve controversial plan to make use of $400 million in COVID-19 aid money to construct 2 new prisons

© AP photo/Kim Chandler in this July 29, 2020 file photograph, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey speaks right through a information convention in Bernard Law Montgomery, Alabama. AP picture/Kim Chandler

Alabama lawmakers are pushing forward on a controversial plan to make use of COVID-19 reduction cash to build new prisons, the associated Press said.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill authorizing the use of $400 million from the American Rescue Plan to in part fund the new prisons.

Democrats have hostile the plan, arguing it's an incorrect use of the pandemic relief money.

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Alabama lawmakers pushed forward Friday on a controversial plan to spend $four hundred million in federal COVID-19 aid dollars to build two new prisons within the state.

based on the linked Press, lawmakers in the state accepted a plan to construct two new prisons and renovate current jail amenities for a total of $1.three billion, with $400 million coming from federal funding provided to the state beneath President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan.

Six reformatory amenities would close below the new plan, based on the AP.

The $four hundred million is set 20% of the funding the state received beneath the ARP.

"this is a pivotal moment for the trajectory of our state's criminal justice gadget," GOP Gov. Kay Ivey noted at an event signing the legislations, in keeping with a record from The associated Press.

Republicans who supported the legislations argued that the use of the money changed into acceptable because of a provision of the $1.9 trillion plan that allowed states to allocate money to complement misplaced profits and bolster state functions, The associated Press mentioned.

"This become the appropriate aspect for Alabama to do. we now have bought crumbling infrastructure. we've acquired individuals housed in areas which are filthy. we've acquired individuals working in circumstances that are hazardous," Republican State Sen. Greg Albritton pointed out, per the AP.

Democrats, in the meantime, hostile the plan and argued it became an incorrect use of the ARP unds. US house Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, a Democrat representing long island, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen this week asking that she step in to prevent the ARP funds from being used to construct the prisons, the AP reported.

"i'd be stunned if that become the intention of the funding," White house Press Secretary Jen Psaki talked about on Wednesday, according to the document.

"there are lots of needs right here in the state of Alabama and there are many individuals who want these dollars," Democratic State Rep. Juandalynn Givan referred to, according to the AP document. "however they saw an opportunity to take the Biden money, that $400 million, because it changed into just like liquid water flowing through their arms and say, 'ok, let's leap on it."