By By Connie Nowlin Managing editor
An Atmore man has been named to the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Steve McGill Jr., a state probation and parole officer and member of the Escambia County Board of Education, was nominated by House Speaker Seth Hammett. McGill lives in Freemanville.
He is the son of Lowell S. McGill Sr. and Ouida McGill of Atmore, and a graduate of Escambia County High School.
McGill went on to Faulkner State Community College, and played baseball there as well as at University of Alabama-Birmingham and the University of West Florida, where he earned two bachelor's degrees.
Later, McGill received a master's degree from Troy State University in criminal justice.
He worked as a corrections officer for 15 years, serving at both Fountain and Holman facilities, before becoming a state Probation and Parole officer. He has served in that capacity for five years and also is an instructor at Southwest Alabama Police Academy, where he has taught for three years.
Gov. Bob Riley added five new members Wednesday to the board so that the state could release more than 5,000 inmates to bring prison populations in line with regulations and budget constraints.
The new nominees must be confirmed by the state senate next year, but will begin work immediately.
The Legislature voted in September to increase the parole board to seven members so two panels could review requests for early release.
However, leader of the Legislative Black Caucus have said that body will oppose all the nominees because four of the five are white.
If that opposition keeps the Senate from approving the nominees, their appointments would expire in February.
The leaders of the caucus said that if the nominees were allowed to sit on the board, it would have five white members and two black members. Rep. Alvin Homes, the chairman of the group's affirmative action committee, told the Montgomery Advertiser that would be inappropriate because the majority of prisoners in the Alabama correctional system are black.