WASHINGTON – Alabama has been awarded a federal grant today for $1.6 million to build more prison space for violent criminals, announced U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL).

The grant comes from money appropriated by Congress for the Department of Justice's Violent Offender Incarceration/Truth-in-Sentencing Grant Program. The program provides prison grants to states that have enacted laws requiring serious violent criminals to serve at least 85 percent of the sentence imposed.

"To make Alabama safer, we must lock up violent criminals and keep them there. This grant will help make sure our state has the resources to do just that," Bachus said. "It rewards only those states that have ended the revolving door of early release by enacting tough truth-in-sentencing laws."

According to the Department of Justice, the Alabama Department of Corrections will use the grant funds to construct 226 maximum security prison spaces for violent criminals at Holman Prison in Atmore and 23 single cell units for female violent offenders at Tutwiller Prison in Elmore.

Alabama has received $10,866,862 in Violent Offender Incarceration/Truth-in-Sentencing Grant Program money since the program began in 1995. The Alabama Department of Corrections has used the funding in the past to construct 200 prison spaces at the Loxley Work Center in Loxley, 150 spaces at the Bibb County Correctional Facility in Brant and 300 spaces at the Staton Correctional Facility in Elmore.