This is an opinion column.
Alabama, like the rest of the nation, is facing a surge in crime the likes it has not seen in years.
ul Paul DeMarcoThere have been a lot of factors for the uptick in violence, including the pandemic and the civil unrest the country has seen this past year.
However, one improvement the state has seen is that of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is not releasing violent felons on the street as their predecessors had done not just three years ago.
In 2018, Alabama prosecutors and victims rights advocates sounded the alarm about the release of hundreds of violent inmates on the streets of our state. However, it was the July 13, 2018 murders of Martha Dell Reliford, Marie Kitchens Martin and Colton Ryan Lee by a violent offender who had recently been released from prison by the parole board that pushed state leaders to act.