By Regina Pickett Garson
Anyway, Jones and Abrams had a Rally. I had a ticket, and I seriously wanted to be there. The morning of, I got an email about purses. Because of security, I was either going to need a very small handbag or a clear one. I had never heard of such, but it could be that I am not as up with the times as I thought. That was the first inkling I got that it wasn’t going to work out. I had planned to Uber over. I did not have an appropriate purse, and morning of was a little late to figure that out. At my age, I need proper supplies when I leave the house. Not to mention, that was about the time I realized that it was going to be a standing-room event, and the Lord knows I have seen better days.
Knowing what I know now, and maybe with a little serenity type acceptance thrown in, I could have asked about accessibility accommodations. Being real, I always figured that was somebody else who had that need. The hands of time sure do march on though, and I sure wanted to be there. Doug Jones had been circling the state and circling it again, getting out and talking to people, answering questions and listening to what folks had to say.
Before I was even through pouting, I got an email that he was having a Virtual Meet-and-Greet on Zoom. So, I got a ticket for that one too. The day of, I got my coffee, logged into my computer, and got my questions ready.
As to who he is, and why I wanted to hear what he had to say. Doug Jones was on the team that led the way to justice that finally closed the case for the four young African American girls—Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14), Cynthia Wesley (14), and Denise McNair (11), who were killed in a church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963. Although this one took decades, anybody who lived through the Civil Rights Movement in the South has a good idea of the level of courage, strength, and ironclad will-power that it took for a White man to help secure convictions in this case. Doug Jones is an American hero. A real one.
Once we all got logged in, Jones talked a while about his campaign, and then he went to taking questions. He didn’t just take questions; he answered them, and he went down the list. Some folks asked their questions out loud. Others, like me, typed ours in the chat window.
Our corrections system is a concern to many of our citizens, and I wanted to ask about that: Alabama Republicans have been making a lot of noise about cleaning this state up and getting tough on crime. The thing is, despite having been in control of the State Legislature since 2010, they don’t seem to have done a whole lot about it.
Some folks have though, Birmingham, one of our largest cities, now has its lowest homicide rate since 1954, with a 70% reduction. Their overall crime rate is down 12% just in the past year. Local officials credit the reduction in crime to a combination of intelligence-led policing, targeted enforcement in crime hot spots, and new community violence intervention programs implemented under Mayor Randall Woodfin. It sure looks like somebody in the state is getting it right when it comes to fighting crime. Alabama Political Reporter
It concerns me what that get tough-on-crime talk is actually going to do to the lives of our citizens, most especially when the crime rate is already way down in a major city such as Birmingham.
That brings us around to the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC). Alabama is always in some kind of Federal trouble for not meeting yet another minimum standard for its jails and prisons. I sure do believe that we should be tough on crime, keep our folks civilized, but of all the things we are right near, if not flat at the bottom, Alabama is right near the top in the number of people we have locked up. And money is not the issue here. Or maybe it is. We somehow manage to spend more per inmate than just about anybody else. Jones pointed out that we spend 25 cents of every dollar on corrections, which is more than we spend on education, and we still have one of the worst prison systems in the country. Our parole system is a mess, and our over 60 prison population has increased exponentially, which is at least partly due to what he terms our broken parole system.
Meanwhile, these Republican politicians are talking about how we need to get tough on crime and clean up our state. How many more of our people are they planning to lock up? Governor Kay Ivey is in the process of building a new prison, and pushing for another one, but she really wanted four. But anyway, my question was on our corrections system, and I was not the only one who had questions on it.
All this while Tommy Tuberville, who is running against Jones for governor, struts around, spouting off about what a hellhole Alabama is and how we need to get tough on crime. There is no doubt that our prisons and jails are hellholes, or that we have problems in some areas. But Mayor Woodfin has already reduced the Birmingham crime rate, and the Republicans have been in control of the state since 2010, so why haven’t they done something already. There is a lot of money in crime though, and there are some very real reasons why some of these folks are a whole lot more interested in locking people up than fixing the problems that lead to so many being locked up.
Jones is significantly more informed and rational on the subject. He discussed Alabama's prison spending, the aging prison population, and the failure of our broken parole system. He also discussed diversion programs, particularly those designed to keep young people out of prison. He went on to discuss the need for financial reviews and audits. Our prisons are not private, but a whole lot of the work is farmed out, and the money is going somewhere. The question he asked is where. We are spending way too much on our prison system for it to be continuously falling short of basic human standards. We need to do more both to fight crime and to see to the well-being of the inmates in our corrections system.
"The Alabama Solution," the documentary about the conditions in our Alabama prisons was real. Jones discussed the federal government's litigation concerning Alabama prison conditions, which seems to be never-ending. He pointed out the waste, and that we need to quit throwing money at private lawyers every time the Justice Department goes to court against the State of Alabama because of its prison system.
Meanwhile, ask him a question, and Tuberville frequently starts talking about abortion. It has been years since I wrote about abortion politicians. Now, Y'all. Nothing has changed, and Tuberville is one of them. Abortion politicians get folks riled up over abortions. They talk about abortions even after the baby is born. That is not an abortion, and they don’t have the sense to know the difference. The thing is, he spins it like Jones is some kind of rabid abortion lover.
Back in the 2020 Senate race, Tuberville attacked Jones over abortion, claiming that Jones supported abortions up until birth and had voted to fund late-term abortions with taxpayer money. It has already been proved and proved again that he was less than truthful on what he said about Jones and abortion. He was called out twice during that campaign alone for being less than truthful, okay for lying about Jones and his stance on abortion. PolitiFact
To clarify, since it keeps coming up, federal law already places strict limits on taxpayer-funded abortions. Under the Hyde Amendment, in effect since 1976, federal Medicaid funds generally cannot pay for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or when the pregnant woman's life is endangered. Similar restrictions apply to other federal healthcare programs.
As to Jones and the abortion issue. He is sane, despite the rhetoric from the other side. Way back in 2017, Jones said: “I fully support a woman’s freedom to choose to what happens to her own body. Having said that, the law for decades has been that late-term procedures are generally restricted except in the case of medical necessity. That’s what I support. I don’t see any changes in that.” Tommy Tuberville wrong twice in attack on Alabama Sen. Doug Jones on abortion – PolitiFact
Also Jones' words, “We have to do better when it comes to maternal and infant health, make childcare more affordable and protect women’s freedom to make their own decisions about their reproductive health, IVF and contraception.”
Back to the Meet-and-Greet, Jones does not avoid the hard questions, and he never has. By the night of the Virtual Meet-and-Greet, he had already done 20 Town Halls. The Meet-and-Greets were just extra. I know it would have been the political event of the season to have heard him and Abrams. It was packed out, as has been true of a lot of his Town Halls and rallies.
Despite my pouting at missing the rally, the Meet-and-Greet was a whole lot more personal than a rally could ever be. We all got our questions heard, and answered. When it comes to getting out and really talking to the people, listening to their concerns, and talking about what he is going to do about them, Jones has been hitting all the bases. I don’t guess they have bases in football though. That could be why Tuberville hasn’t been too worried about talking to folks.
Jones talked about every single concern and issue that the attendees wanted to talk about in that Meet-and-Greet, and sometimes more than once. I asked about our prison system. I am not real happy with where the cannabis laws are going in our state either. Way too many lives have been destroyed by the War on Drugs. People don’t get the help they need because of it, and it is to the point that people will watch as their own or the life of a loved one is destroyed because of what happens if they end up in our way past messed up prison system. That system is broken too.
Jones is a staunch supporter of legalizing medical marijuana. He feels that patients should have access to medical cannabis if it provides relief, and he has spoken openly about prioritizing medical access over continued prohibition. In the Senate, Jones supported the decriminalization of recreational marijuana. From a criminal justice perspective, he argues that the justice system needs to stop locking up non-violent cannabis users and focus on more severe issues, such as the opioid crisis. Alabama Political Reporter.
Here are some of the highlights on some of the other issues he discussed: Jones wants to pass a lottery bill to allow people to vote on it, so we can keep the money in Alabama. He also talked about the importance of trade schools, so folks can learn how to make a good living. He wants to eliminate the grocery tax, which we’ve had for way too long. He also maintains that we must increase the minimum wage in Alabama. We are number 7 on the poverty rate in this country, and lifting people out of poverty starts with raising the minimum wage.
Right alongside that, we need to unclog the wait times if we expand Medicaid, which he plans to do, and I am still aggravated that neither Bentley nor Ivey accepted those funds for our state. We paid our share of the taxes on it, so the way I see it, that is like buying your groceries and leaving them in the store for the next person. Paying it forward is cool, but that is not a good plan if you need a few groceries too. We all have to eat, and we all need medical care. The Medicaid Expansion will make a big difference in a number of the health care issues in our state. That is not even to mention the hospitals that closed because of the lack of funding.
Despite it all, the thing that concerns me the most about having Tuberville leading our state is the fact that he has not shown a whole lot of understanding regarding the importance of our nation’s military. One of the most despicable deeds I have ever seen out of any Senator was when he stonewalled military promotions to make a political point. His political grandstanding left critical positions unfilled so long as to raise serious concerns about military readiness, leaving our entire nation vulnerable. It was like playing “Russian roulette” with our national security, and he didn’t seem to grasp the fact that it was even an issue. It was just a game to him. It could be that everything is, but this is not football. I live in a military town, and I used to work on that base. I damn well believe in a strong military. He can give lip service to our armed forces until cows fly, but if he doesn’t understand the difference in supporting and undermining them, what else does he not understand. I question his judgement, and I question his good common sense. Those political shenanigans could have cost our country dearly.
In the middle of all that, Jones has had some in the Dem camp about as mad as they can get because he was reaching across the aisle the whole time he was in the Senate. That has doubtless cost him some votes, but do you know what? I think that is one of the best things about him. He talks to people. He finds out what they think, and then he rolls up his sleeves to work with them toward a common goal. As far as I am concerned, that is what a good politician is supposed to do. Meanwhile, Tuberville made it clear that he is not interested in working across the aisle: on Page 3 of his playbook, he says, “The woke mob doesn’t get a vote in Alabama.” Tommy Tuberville Website. That says it all, because I sure do think we all need to be working together for the good of the state.
At the end of the day, it is not about Red or Blue, it is about the good of our people and our state. Jones said something during the Meet-and-Greet that really resonated. He doesn't see this election as a Red Wave or a Blue Wave, but as a "Change Wave," with people from both parties wanting something different for Alabama. There is no doubt that I do too, and that is exactly why I am voting for Doug Jones.
Sources:
- "The Alabama Solution." HBO Documentary.
- ChatGPT provided editorial assistance.
- Doug for Alabama.
- Garson, Regina Pickett. December 10, 2017. "Abortion Politics in Alabama." Now, Y'all: On Politics, Social Issues, and Life.
- Gemini -- The Google Gemini App was used for fact checking.
- Kertscher, Tom. October 14, 2020. "Tommy Tuberville Wrong Twice in Attack on Alabama Sen. Doug Jones on Abortion." Politifact.
- Mosley, Brandon. September, 20, 2019. Jones: Time to Take Marijuana off Controlled Substances List. Alabama Political Reporter.
- Tommy Tuberville Website.
- Wooten, Mary Claire. July 3, 2026. "Birmingham Reports 70 Percent Drop in Homicides, Overall Crime Falls 12 Percent." Alabama Political Reporter.
