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Beasley, Penn commended

Pictured are Rep. Billy Beasley and commission chairman Earl Gilmore.

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Published: June 19, 2009

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Barbour County Commissioners recently applauded the efforts of District 84 State Representative Billy Beasley and District 28 State Senator Myron Penn during the recently-completed Alabama Legislative session.

Beasley and Penn were key figures in the passage of a new state law that transferred the responsibility for assuring sex offenders released from state prisons secure approved housing arrangements from the county where they released to the county where they were convicted.

With two state prisons in Barbour County, The Barbour County jail has been forced to house as many as a 16 former prison inmates who could not find approved housing back home. Now those inmates will be quickly remanded to the custody of the sheriff with jurisdiction over the community where the conviction occurred.

Barbour County Commission Chairman Earl Gilmore estimated this change in the law will save the county thousands of dollars annually and help ease perpetual crowding at the Barbour County Jail in Clayton.

Read more on this story in the weekend edition of The Tribune avaliable Friday, June 19.