The federal government has put the state of Alabama on notice again after an investigation by the Department of Justice found “systemic unconstitutional conditions,” like the use of excessive force, throughout the Alabama male prison system.
What We Know:
- The U.S. Department of Justice, along with U.S Attorneys in Alabama, released a report on Thursday that details the widespread excessive use of force against male prisoners throughout the Alabama prison system. The investigation concluded there was reasonable cause to believe that a pattern of using excessive force against prisoners existed in Alabama’s men’s prisons, according to the Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Civil Rights Division.
- The DOJ investigation reviewed 13 different Alabama prisons and found that at 12 of them, Alabama corrections officers violated inmates’ constitutional rights by frequently using excessive or deadly force against the inmates. The review concluded the problem gives rise to “systemic unconstitutional conditions” and that such violations disenfranchise the inmates by revoking “their full enjoyment of rights secured by the Eighth Amendment” which protects individuals against “cruel and unusual punishment”.
- The pattern of abuse came to light after a series of civil rights lawsuits against the Alabama prison system over the years, including a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). This is the latest update in a series of investigations dating back to 2016. The DOJ has already found that Alabama was “deliberately indifferent” to widespread prisoner-on-prisoner attacks and sexual abuse, and failed to maintain facilities that are “sanitary, safe, or secure”.
- The report found that interactions with corrections officers’ and inmates often resulted in serious injuries and last year resulted in at least two deaths from officers’ use of batons, chemical spray, and physical violence such as kicking and beating in altercations. According to DOJ findings, in one fatal incident in October 2019, a prisoner was beaten so badly by officers that the he suffered multiple fractures to his skull, “including near his nose, both eye sockets, left ear, left cheekbone, and the base of his skull”. This caused extensive bleeding in multiple parts of his brain and ultimately lead to his death.
- The investigation also cites severe overcrowding and under-staffing as contributing factors to the pattern of excessive use of force, but “ultimately, Alabama does not properly prevent and address unconstitutional uses of force in its prisons, fostering a culture where unlawful uses of force are common”.
- Republican Governor Kay Ivey says her administration will be carefully reviewing the allegations and working to resolve any issues within the prison system. “I am as committed as ever to improving prison safety through necessary infrastructure investment, increased correctional staffing, comprehensive mental health care services, and effective rehabilitation programs,” Ivey says. “We all desire an effective, Alabama solution to this Alabama problem.”
- While Ivey showed a willingness to work with the federal government to reform the Alabama prison system, Republican State Attorney General Steve Marshall is against Alabama entering into a legal agreement with the federal government over prison conditions. Marshall said he will not submit the state to judicial oversight of prisons as the state was “ambushed” by the report. “Alabama will not be bullied into a perpetual consent decree to govern our prison system, nor will we be pressured to reach such an agreement with federal bureaucrats, conspicuously, fifty-three days before a presidential election,” Marshall said in a statement.
- The DOJ has called for Alabama to immediately address and remedy the excessive use of force by corrections officers. They advise the state to take drastic measures to correct the problem, including enacting a grievance procedure, recording reported abuse in a database that can help identify patterns of abusive force, and increasing the use of video cameras in the facilities to document events. The DOJ also says the state should reframe its mandates to explicitly state that any strike or contact to the head constitutes as a form of lethal force that should only be used in specific situations to protect life or serious bodily injury.
Alabama has 49 days to take action to rectify the situation and address the Justice Department’s concerns. If it doesn’t, the DOJ warns that the Attorney General will file a lawsuit.
