HEADLAND, Ala. (WDHN) — Prison reform has been an issue in the state of Alabama for years. It was scheduled to be discussed the last time they were in session, however, it was taken off the agenda. It looks like a special session may be on the horizon for the Alabama House of Representatives.

“I’m thinking that Governor Ivey is waiting to have an agreement to see what legislators want to do with the prisons issue, but I think this issue has been made easier by the fact that they have determined they can use federal care money,” Political Analyst, Steve Flowers said.

Flowers also says that a special session is probably on the horizon and that a decision could be made about a prison construction plan and how the state would pay for it during that session.

“I think they are headed towards a special session on it, and I think the result will be that they will just build three new men’s prisons and renovate some of the existing prisons,” Flowers said.

This special session will likely be called at the beginning of October, but it has been looming for a while now.

“We’ve been aware that this would eventually come up,” District 85 Representative, Dexter Grimsley said. “That we would have to address these issues at some point, and we just know that a special session possibly come up, we have some issues that we need to address surrounding our situation with our prisons.”

With prison reform being the topic of the first special session, it seems that reapportionment will be the topic of the second special session.

“That tells me they are going to do reapportionment the last of October or early November,” Flowers said.

Gambling has been the hot topic of discussion, but it does not look like it will be discussed in the next two special sessions.