One state official says the Alabama prison system is overcrowded and understaffed.

That’s what department of corrections spokesman Steve Hayes told members of the Dothan exchange club Monday.

Hayes says Alabama prisoners out number the guards 11-1 while neighboring Georgia and Florida average a 5-1 ratio.

Alabama prisons were built to house 12,000 and at one time they held more than 28,000 inmates.

Hayes says the state parole board has freed more than 2,000 prisoners in a little more than a year.

Alabama spends less than $29 per inmate per day which is the lowest rate in the nation. The southeast average is $40 per day and the national average is closer to $60 per day.