Greene County Democrat

Tag: Alabama Department of Corrections

  • Newswire : Alabama Prison Documentary ‘The Alabama Solution’ earns Oscar Nomination

    By Lisa Crane | WVTM | The Birmingham Times

    A documentary that puts Alabama prisons in the spotlight is now in the running for one of the most well-known, prestigious awards in Hollywood — an Oscar. Nominees for the 98th Academy Awards were announced Thursday. “The Alabama Solution” is one of five films nominated in the documentary feature film category.
    It’s a sobering look at life behind bars in Alabama prisons. Most of the video in the documentary, “The Alabama Solution,” is shot by inmates themselves, on contraband cellphones. It’s graphic and, at times, difficult to watch. Former corrections officer Stacy George is a part of the documentary. He called it an accurate depiction of what an Alabama prison inmate faces.
    “These things are real. I mean, there’s a lot of abuse, and there’s a lot of neglect. I saw boxes that said ‘not for human consumption’ on the boxes; they feed them,” George said.
    Some say part of the problem is the secrecy. Not many people from the outside ever get to see inside Alabama prisons. Even journalists aren’t allowed to get close. We’re kept about a mile away from St. Clair Correctional Facility. That’s as close as we’re allowed to be.
    George claims the culture is the real problem. He said, sadly, many of the corrections officers are simply bullies.
    “If they come down here to Birmingham and they want to be a police officer, the first thing they probably do will take a mental evaluation test. Well, if that officer wants to be an officer, if he fails that test, guess where the next place he goes to get a job. It’s with the Alabama Department of Corrections,” George said.
    Gov. Kay Ivey’s press secretary released a statement saying, “We already knew the Oscars had a low bar, but as far as corrections goes, there has never been an Alabama governor more dedicated to solving the longstanding challenges facing the system than Governor Ivey. From recruiting a record number of corrections officers to doing sentencing reforms to constructing needed, new facilities, Governor Ivey is getting the job done and making it safer for inmates, officers and the public alike.”
    Now that the documentary is a favorite to win an Academy Award, George hopes even more people will watch it and be inspired to push for change. The Oscars ceremony is set for 6 p.m. March 15.

  • 325 people died in custody of Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) in 2023

    There have now been more than 1,000 deaths in Alabama prisons since a 2019 DOJ investigation found Alabama’s prisons unconstitutional.

    By: Patrick Darrington, Alabama Political Reporter
    Published on February 2, 2024

    At least 325 individuals died while incarcerated in the Alabama Department of Corrections in 2023, marking the highest number of deaths recorded, according to data obtained by Alabama Appleseed.
    “In the weeks after we started tracking prison deaths starting January 1 of last year, we quickly realized we’d very likely see another record year of deaths, and we were correct,” Eddie Burkhalter, a researcher with Alabama Appleseed, said.
    According to a report by Burkhalter, since 2019, there have now been over 1,000 deaths in Alabama prisons following an investigation by the Department of Justice that found Alabama’s prisons unconstitutional. The DOJ also filed a lawsuit against Alabama in 2020 because of the alleged unconstitutionality of its prisons, and that case is set to begin in November 2024.
    The deaths of hundreds of individuals in ADOC facilities underscore a multitude of issues ranging from unchecked violence to the proliferation of drugs, both often a result of the correctional officers supposedly tasked with maintaining the peace.
    Multiple times, APR has reported instances of correctional officers being involved in assaults, getting caught possessing drugs, or former officers being sentenced for assaults.
    Another issue is the problem of overcrowding and lack of parole for older individuals or those who are in minimum custody, meaning they pose little threat to the public and work in communities in the free world.
    ADOC’s statistics often indicate that many individuals die from “natural” causes, which may be true for older individuals. This then raises the question of why many of them are not released.

    However, these statistics should also be viewed skeptically because ADOC has a history of misclassifying deaths to mask how many individuals died from violence, as Burkhalter also indicates.
    APR has heard from sources that both overcrowding and lack of parole increase the violence within the prisons. The lack of parole, in particular, enables individuals to adopt an attitude of believing they have nothing to lose, resulting in acts of violence because there is no longer a fear of consequence.
    “Until the Alabama Department of Corrections takes the steps necessary to rid our prisons of the drugs that drive the violence and death, and hold those who prey on the weaker inside our prisons accountable, we’ll continue to see records like this broken every year. State lawmakers and the public need to press ADOC to act so that we don’t continue to see more MaKayla Mounts, who at the age of 17 feel they must stand in front of a room full of strangers and speak about losing their father at such a young age.”
    In December, Mount was one of over a dozen individuals who spoke during a public hearing at a Joint Prison Oversight Committee Meeting. Mount detailed how her father, Christopher Mount, was strangled in prison and expressed what it was like to have to wait 10 years to see her dad.
    “You know, when you see your dad for the first time in 10 years and half of his face is gone because he was beaten, it does something to you,” Mount said. “… The [correctional officers] are corrupt, the prisons are corrupt. It’s in the name; it’s a correctional facility. It’s meant for correction. It’s not a death sentence; it’s not supposed to be a death sentence, and yet, it is. So many people are dying for no reason.”
    Despite Mount and other families begging for change, the violence has only escalated according to the final death total.
    Patrick Darrington is a reporter at the Alabama Political Reporter. You can reach him at pdarrington@alreporter.com.