Earlier this week I had the opportunity to sit down with State Representative Laura Hall (D, HD19) to discuss some issues related to her candidacy for the Alabama Senate seat (District 7) recently vacated by Parker Griffith. The first installment of the interview is available here. The conversation in this installment focuses on Rep. Hall's record in the State House.
By and large I will let the video and transcript (typos and misspellings are obviously mine) tell the story here. My questions are in plain text and Rep. Hall's responses are in italics.
Q: The Compassionate Care bill. You have brought that bill up in the past, more than once. You are not a cosponsor this year. What has changed?
Rep. Hall: I was not asked to sponsor the bill this year. I am a mother of a son that died of AIDS. That time for me was a very difficult time. And I looked, after his death, I have worked with mothers and parents of children dying with AIDS and have seen the pain that they've gone through. And if I had had the opportunity, if that had been available to me ... remember this is medical use ...then I certainly felt that at least it would have provided some relief for my son and other individuals.
Q: Do you think that bill has a chance in the Senate this year?
Rep. Hall: Let me say that the bill's chances of even coming out of committee -- it came out of committee before. It came out of committee to a subcommittee. And at this point as controversial as individuals would deem it to be, I would say that I would not say that that would be the number one focus because I think the focus within the legislature is mainly going to be whether or not we have enough money to even develop a budget that we need.
Q: Do you think overall that the drug policies we have pursued in this country have been effective? Have been fair in the past? The criminalization of marijuana? I believe you are co-sponsoring this year the salvia bill -- that would criminalize use of that.
Rep. Hall: I am.
Q: Is that effective?
Rep. Hall: The drug policies are they effective? When you look at the number of indivuduals that we have in prison, the majority of them, the large percentage of those are drug related. The policy I think is most effective is going to develop a rehabilitation plan to help them to address their issues and those concerns. I think that -- We have education. We find that when individuals are well-educated the chance of them getting involved in things that are illegal are a lot less. Same thing with living in a safe place, having a job. So those things, I think are some of the things that address that issue of the use of drugs. Do we need to look at the drug policies. I think the sentencing commission is looking at issues that relates to terms of sentences and those kinds of things. So that's a beginning. So, yes, we do need to take a look at it because when we look at the number of beds we have for prisons vs. the number of prisoners that we have, I think in every area we need to take a strong look at it and determine how to best address it.
Q: The prisons .. that also enters into the budget. There are fixed costs that you folks have to meet, prisons being one. Do you think there are more cost effective ways to deal with offenders, not just drug offenders? I know Sue Bell Cobb, since she's been Chief Justice has talked about changing the way the courts do things so you don't just automatically throw everybody in jail.
Rep. Hall: I agree with that. As a matter of fact she has a task force or commission dealing with drug courts to make sure that every county has a drug court and I think that's an excellent approach. She also ... we passed the juvenile ... reformation of the juvenile codes last year, an excellent way of dealing with juvenile issues and providing the resources or the necessary support that they may need to prevent them from becoming a statistic in prison.
Off camera, I asked Rep. Hall if there was anything about herself that she particularly wanted to bring to the attention of the LiA community.
Rep. Hall: Well, as an individual I am persistent, I'm a hard worker, I try to do ... if I tell you I'm going to do something, I believe that my word is important and I try to make sure that I do that. I have the experience. I have more than 15 years in the legislature and I believe that I have the ability -- and I've shown that I have the ability -- of being able not only to work with the individuals within the House of Representatives but also in the Senate
Q: What's your greatest achievement since you've been down there? You're a hard worker you say and you're proud of the work that you do. What are you most proud of?
Rep. Hall: There are several things but one of the bills that I'm most proud of that I've done is the Landlord-Tenant Bill which took a number of years. Because there were different people at the table, from homebuilders to realtors to Alabama Arise and consistently looking at issues that have been brought to our attention. The idea with the Landlord-Tenant Bill was to provide a safe place for individuals to live and also to require them to be responsible. It was not just on the tenant but also on the landlord. That's one. A safe haven for babies has been another one. Increasing the funding for AIDS drug assistance program. When I started we were getting about $150,000 and had a waiting list of more than 700 individuals and that no longer is the case.
Q: Explain that one a little bit more.
Rep. Hall: AIDS drug assistance program. Those individuals who cannot afford drugs ...
Q: And those are very expensive drugs?
Rep. Hall: Yes. So that fund is available. Funds were allocated through Public Health It's a total of about $5 million now that is allocated to that particular line in the budget. Without that we would have a waiting list of individuals needing drugs. If you know anything about the disease, one of the things that has improved the quality of life for individuals with AIDS is being able to take their medication and getting it at the right time. So, for me, that is significant.
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I also asked Rep. Hall if she read blogs and she replied "Not often." However she is on Facebook and ActBlue.
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Earlier this week I had the opportunity to sit down with State Representative 
