The Alabama legislature approved a plan to divert more than $400 million from the $1.2 billion federal funding to assist with pandemic response to projects to build two supersized prisons in the state, the Associated Press reports.
The legislation to pay for the prison construction, which has a $1.3 billion price tag, was approved on a bipartisan basis in the state senate. Republican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey is expected to sign the bill.
“This was the right thing for Alabama to do. We’ve got crumbling infrastructure. We’ve got people housed in places that are filthy. We’ve got individuals in working in conditions that are unsafe, ” Republican state senator Greg Albritton said.