These real stories are not necessarily intended to frighten you. While this article focuses on Alabama, similar tales are common around the nation. The realities conveyed in the article represent the consequences you and yours will be faced with, however, if you end up in prison.
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Federal investigators spent more than two years investigating Alabama state prisons. Alabama has the third-highest incarceration rate in the country and they have earned the unfortunate distinction of having eight times the national average of murders behind bars. These statistics are generated by the prison’s own records, and as you are about to read, ADOC (Alabama Department of Corrections) has a habit of miscategorizing ‘homicides’ as ‘natural deaths’ in an effort to pad the grim statistics. The investigators found the prison system woefully understaffed and the few poorly trained officers on duty appeared powerless to establish any semblance of control. Illegal drugs and weapons were rampant and the cell blocks were overcrowded and dilapidated.
Some prisoners witnessed so much mind-scarring violence that they fear they will never heal. Like the prisoner who saw another human being sodomized with a broomstick and assaulted with boiling water poured down his anus. Another man, in drug debt, was made to walk on all fours wearing a collar and leash like a dog.
In three cases, investigators said prison officials overlooked apparent murders, ascribing deaths to natural causes even when prisoners had been stabbed. They said that guards turned a blind eye to inmates who were raped and that officials came to accept violence and sexual assaults among inmates as “a normal course of business.”
Three days before federal investigators arrived to conduct their first prison inspection in 2017, an inmate was stabbed to death by two other prisoners within a unit designated for problem inmates, known as the “Hot Bay.”
Two prisoners watched for approaching officers while the victim “screamed for help,” Justice Department investigators wrote. When another inmate attempted to intervene, he, too, was stabbed. An officer appeared after other prisoners pounded on the unit’s locked doors, but the response came too late. The officer “found the prisoner lying on the floor bleeding from his chest,” the report says. “The prisoner eventually bled to death. … One Hot Bay resident told us that he could still hear the prisoner’s screams in his sleep.”
On the same day of the deadly attack, a prisoner at a separate facility was stabbed multiple times, requiring a helicopter evacuation to a nearby hospital – one of several emergency transports to outside hospitals that week. That left prisoners to fend for themselves.
“Prisoners who are seriously injured or stabbed must find their way to security staff elsewhere in the facility or bang on the door of the dormitory to gain the attention of correctional officers,” the report concludes. “Prisoners have been tied up for days by other prisoners while unnoticed by security staff.”
In one case, investigators said guards watched an inmate bleed on the other side of a locked fence as they struggled to find a key. In another, investigators said an unnamed inmate told them that a guard told him that he would need to arm himself with a knife to survive his sentence.
Justice Department investigators said prison officials ascribed at least three of those homicides to “natural causes,” including one man who had been stabbed repeatedly a few days earlier, including one puncture in his skull.
The report says prison officers and officials “appear to accept the high level of violence and sexual abuse … as a normal course of business.”
Prison captains and lieutenants interviewed by investigators indicated that staffers were often resigned to the idea that prisoners “will be subjected to sexual abuse as a way to pay debts accrued to other prisoners.”
Drugs, Shanks, Rapes, and Staff Apathy
There are so few officers, the report found, that weapons and drugs are easily obtained and trafficked throughout the system. In one particularly violent housing unit, a search resulted in the seizure of 166 weapons.
The report also contains a photograph of a guard holding what resembles a small sword, a homemade weapon with a gleaming blade, that was recovered in 2017.
A prisoner described the unit as “a place where you have to fight the day you arrive or you’ll be a bitch, so you get a knife.”
Officials allowed drugs to flourish, the report says, and staff members allegedly smuggled contraband inside. One employee reportedly earned $75,000 ferrying illegal drugs and other contraband, and his accomplice – a prisoner – made $100,000, the report says. Even prisoners referred to the drug problem as an “epidemic,” the report says. About 95% of the prison population used drugs, according to one commander’s estimate. An investigator reported that several prisoners lay in a hallway at Bullock Correctional Facility after smoking the same drug. The sight, the report says, resembled “triage in a war zone.”
One of the most readily and cheaply available drugs was synthetic marijuana, commonly known as K-2, which resulted in at least three dozen overdose deaths at several Alabama prisons from 2016 to 2018. Methamphetamine, fentanyl, and an “unknown white powder” also resulted in overdoses, the report says. “Many of the prisoners we interviewed painted a portrait of a system where drugs are ubiquitous, dangerous, and contribute to violence … A common theme in our interviews of prisoners was that correctional officers observe the drug use and take no action,” the report says.
This fledgling drug trade not only resulted in dozens of overdose deaths – the causes of which were listed as “natural” or “accidental” in incident reports – but also in violence and sexual abuse against prisoners who couldn’t pay their drug debts, according to the report.
Hundreds of sexual assault incidents were reported but were largely dismissed even when inmates showed physical signs of abuse, investigators said. In some cases, staffers categorized the alleged assaults as consensual “homosexual activity.”
In February 2017, a prisoner at Fountain Correctional Facility was gang-raped, the report says, but staffers did not report the assault even though a nurse had noted “several (tissue or skin) tears” suffered by the victim. A few months later, a prisoner at Bibb Correctional Facility reported being raped by another inmate because he owed money. While waiting to be taken to a hospital, the prisoner cut his wrist with a razor.
There are numerous instances where ADOC incident reports classified deaths as due to “natural” causes when, in actuality, the deaths were likely caused by prisoner-on-prisoner violence. This is especially concerning given that these incident reports are used for public statistical reporting as required by law. Some examples include:
- A prisoner died in February 2018, from wounds he sustained four days earlier in a knife fight at Kilby. The autopsy details multiple stab wounds to the prisoner’s head, abdomen, back, and arm. One stab wound extended “through the scalp and impact[ed] the skull and [was] associated with a depressed skull fracture 1/4 inch in diameter.” The toxicological analysis report also revealed the presence of methamphetamine in his system. The incident report listed this prisoner’s death as “Natural,” despite the original incident report narrative describing an altercation with a weapon. Though ADOC reported the death as “Natural,” the autopsy report definitively states that the manner of death was “homicide.”
- In November 2017, a prisoner was rushed to a hospital from Elmore with a brain bleed. Prior to the transfer, the prison’s health care unit had refused to provide medical attention to the prisoner—even though he was “bleeding from his head”—because he appeared to be “under the influence.” At the hospital, he ultimately required emergency brain surgery. Further investigation revealed that another prisoner had physically assaulted the decedent. The incident report does not detail how the assault occurred. Approximately one month later, following readmission, the hospital informed ADOC officials that the prisoner died. ADOC classified the death as “Inmate Death – Natural.” In contrast, the autopsy report describes “multiple contusions present on the right upper chest, wrists and arms.” The autopsy concludes that the manner of death was “homicide” caused by “blunt force head trauma,” which resulted in a subdural hematoma (a pool of blood between the brain and its outermost covering).
- In October 2017, a correctional officer observed a prisoner lying on the bathroom floor, “nonresponsive,” in a dormitory at Elmore. The incident report notes that “Brown Timberland steel toe boots” were taken into evidence, but gives no indication of what injuries the prisoner had and why these boots were evidence. The prisoner died three days later. A spreadsheet of prisoner deaths from 2017, which ADOC’s medical contractor produced to us, indicates that he died from a “[p]possible assault—[f]acial bleeding and [o]occipital [fracture].” The incident report, however, lists the cause of the prisoner’s death as “Inmate Death – Natural.” The autopsy report contains a detailed description of his death: “This 55-year-old male . . . was an inmate at Elmore Correctional Facility when he smoked a synthetic cannabinoid on 10/02/17. Another inmate reportedly began to punch, kick, and slam [him] who was likely unable to resist due to his intoxicated condition. [He] was taken to the shower room in an attempt to arouse him from his ‘high.’ Correctional officers determined that [he] was unresponsive and he was transported to Kilby Health Center, then onward to Jackson Hospital for a higher level of care. [He] expired on 10/05/17 from his injuries.” The autopsy report noted injuries to the scalp, a skull fracture, and bleeding on the surface of the brain. The prisoner also sustained a fractured rib, which caused bleeding into the right chest cavity. The autopsy report concludes that the manner of death was “homicide” as caused by “blunt force injuries of the head and chest.”
The Excessive Number of Deaths Due to Violent, Deadly Assaults Demonstrates that Staff Fails to Keep Its Prisoners Safe.
Our investigation revealed that an alarming number of prisoners are killed by other prisoners using homemade knives. The knives used in these assaults are frequently long and sharp, thus able to easily penetrate the victim’s body and puncture vital organs. Several prisoners who were stabbed to death also had been stabbed in past incidents. ADOC, with the knowledge that previously stabbed prisoners were at risk for further violence, took no meaningful efforts to protect these prisoners from serious harm—harm that was eventually deadly. As detailed by the examples of killings described below, ADOC does not protect prisoners in its custody from death caused by prisoner-on-prisoner violence.
- In September 2018, a prisoner was stabbed to death at St. Clair. The autopsy classified the death as a homicide caused by multiple sharp force injuries resulting in significant blood loss. It further described stab wounds to the neck, left back, and right back. One of those stab wounds penetrated approximately 51⁄2 inches. The prisoner had previously been stabbed in July 2017 while incarcerated at St. Clair.
- In July 2018, a prisoner was stabbed to death at Ventress. The autopsy noted that “another prisoner with a prison-made ‘shank’ reportedly stabbed him.” And the autopsy further noted that “[t]he cause of death was a stab wound of the chest. A sharp force injury of the left chest injured the left lung and the heart, causing massive bleeding into the left chest cavity.” In January 2016, this same prisoner was stabbed in the back by several prisoners at Holman.
- In August 2017, two prisoners got into a knife fight in the institutional yard at Staton. The fight apparently broke out because one prisoner stole a contraband cell phone from the other prisoner. The incident was discovered when the correctional officer in the tower observed a group of prisoners gathered by the volleyball court and called for assistance. When two other officers arrived, they deployed pepper spray to compel the prisoners to disperse and get down on the ground. At that point, they discovered that a prisoner had been stabbed in the chest. ADOC recovered an 11-inch knife with a four-inch handle and a 10-inch knife with a three-inch handle near the scene. The injured prisoner died four days later, and his death was classified as a homicide due to “[s]tab wound of the chest”.
- In July 2017, a prisoner at St. Clair was found tied up and strangled to death. The incident report listed the incident type as “Death – Inmate-on-Inmate” but contained no details about the nature of the death. The incident report said only that at 2:15 p.m., officers entered the cell and observed the prisoner lying unresponsive on the floor and when he was checked, “appeared not to be breathing.” The report stated that a nurse was escorted to the cell and reported that the prisoner “had no signs of life.” A photograph from the aftermath of the murder painted a different, gruesome picture. It clearly showed that the decedent’s hands remained tied to a bedpost when prison officials found his lifeless body. The strangulation marks on his neck are clearly visible. The autopsy classified the death as a homicide caused by “Asphyxia due to Ligature Strangulation.” It further noted the presence of ligature contusions to both wrists.
- In May 2017, a prisoner at Bibb was stabbed to death in the chest. The autopsy noted that the wound penetrated the prisoner’s heart: “The blade is seen to incise the heart at the AV junction on the right with an incision of the right atrium and ventricle approximately 1 inch in length. This wound is associated with a right hemothorax of approximately 2 liters.” The incident report classified the death as the result of an “Inmate-on-Inmate” assault. The incident report stated that at 10:50 a.m., an officer observed several prisoners fighting with a weapon and called for backup. When his supervisor arrived, he noticed a prisoner bleeding from the chest and took him to the medical unit. From there, he was sent by ambulance to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Prison Staff Is Routinely Unable to Adequately Protect Prisoners Even When Officials Have Advance Warning.
Staff is frequently unable to protect its prisoners from violence, despite having advance notice that the prisoners may be in danger. The federal investigation uncovered numerous instances where prisoners explicitly informed prison officials that they feared for their safety and were later killed. In other cases, prisoners were killed by individuals with a lengthy history of violence against other prisoners.
- In February 2018, a prisoner was killed at Bullock—one day after expressing concern for his safety to prison officials. On the day prior to his death, the prisoner entered the Shift Commander’s office and informed officials that he had been threatened over a cellphone that another prisoner had stolen while he was guarding it. The prisoner said that he had been “slapped a few times” for nonpayment related to the missing cell phone, and was afraid. The autopsy classified his death as a homicide by blunt force head trauma that caused intracranial bleeding, as well as hemorrhages in the brainstem.
- A prisoner was killed in a knife fight at St. Clair in February 2018, by another prisoner with an extensive history of being disciplined for possessing knives. The knife fight occurred in the front of a dormitory around 11:30 a.m. The victim was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead at 12:58 pm. The autopsy noted multiple stab wounds to the right lung, heart, liver, spleen, colon, and soft tissues. The assailant had been involved in a different knife fight at Holman in June 2016. He was found with knives in December 2016, and again in January 2017, when he was housed in segregation.
- In September 2017, a prisoner at Bibb died of stab wounds to the chest. The autopsy report described at least 22 puncture wounds. These included several stab wounds to the neck, a fact not referenced in the incident report. Since April 2017, the victim had been involved in at least two other physical altercations at Bibb with two separate prisoners. And, in October 2016, while the victim was housed at Fountain, a correctional officer witnessed a different prisoner repeatedly stabbing him.
- A prisoner at St. Clair was strangled to death in May 2016. When officers found the prisoner, he was lying face down in his bed, and his face was flattened, indicating that he had been dead for quite some time. At some point, the assailants appeared to have urinated on the victim. Additionally, staff noted that the numbers “1636” had been carved post-mortem into the decedent’s ribcage. The victim was a known gang member, and the number 1636 is a gang-related reference to “cardinal sin,” indicating that the person is a traitor or snitch. Less than two weeks before his death, the victim had been assaulted over a debt. Following that assault, the victim was placed in segregation for his protection. He was released from segregation hours before he was killed.
Evidence of prisoner-on-prisoner violence in prisons abounds—weekly in some prisons, daily in others—and is documented in ADOC’s incident reports. In many instances, prisoners were so gravely injured that they had to be airlifted or taken by ambulance to local hospitals for emergency treatment. The following are just a few examples from among the hundreds in ADOC’s incident reports:
- In March 2018, two Staton prisoners were involved in a fight. An officer ordered them to stop, but they refused, so the officer sprayed them with pepper spray. One prisoner then dropped a 10-inch long homemade knife. One of the prisoners had to be airlifted to an outside hospital due to a stab wound in his stomach.
- In October 2017, at Holman, a cubicle officer observed two prisoners yelling at each other in an open dormitory and called for assistance. When officers arrived, a prisoner was standing at the gate of the housing unit bleeding from his stomach and face. The victim was transported to a local community hospital where he was then taken by helicopter to a larger medical center where he was successfully treated.
- In April 2017, a Bibb prisoner was stabbed in the back and left temple while asleep, and had to be airlifted to an outside hospital. This prisoner had a history of drug debts and had previously tested positive for drugs. His attacker explained that the victim owed him a $200 debt and was not going to pay, so he “got it in blood.”
- In February 2017, an Elmore prisoner was killed because of a failed drug transaction. Multiple prisoners attacked the victim while he lay asleep in bed, then he was dragged on a blanket to the common room, where a correctional officer eventually discovered him. He was airlifted to an outside hospital for emergency surgery due to a brain hemorrhage. He died two days later. Yet another pattern that emerges is the prevalence of contraband, especially homemade weapons, which appear to be very easy for prisoners to produce or procure.
Many of the incidents already described demonstrate the widespread availability of such weapons, as do the following, which also illustrate just how dangerous these weapons can be:
- In April 2018, a prisoner at Ventress attacked another prisoner with a homemade hatchet. The victim was taken to an outside hospital with excessive blood loss and a possible punctured lung. ADOC described the “hatchet-like weapon” as having a footlong broom handle with a “lawn edging blade” attached to the top.
- In February 2018, an officer noticed a St. Clair prisoner running down the hallway and stopped him. The prisoner turned and showed the officer that he had a knife embedded in his head. The prisoner had to be transported to an outside hospital for the removal of an eight-inch, metal homemade knife from the back of his head.
- In September 2017, at St. Clair, when a lieutenant was conducting rounds in two open dormitories, he observed two prisoners fighting with box cutters and homemade knives. The lieutenant radioed for assistance and waited for other officers to arrive. As two officers escorted one of the prisoners to the health care unit, a third prisoner quickly approached and stabbed the escorted prisoner in the back. Officers sprayed the third attacker with pepper spray while a fourth prisoner tried to stab the third attacker with a knife and he too was sprayed with pepper spray. One of the prisoners was taken by ambulance to an outside emergency room for treatment of his stab wounds.
- In July 2017, at Elmore, an officer working alone in an open dormitory observed a prisoner stab another prisoner. He radioed for help and ordered the attacker to drop the knife. The prisoner refused and ran away with the knife in his hand. He only stopped when another officer responded to the call for assistance and sprayed the attacker in the face with pepper spray. The victim was taken by helicopter to an outside emergency room for treatment.
- In March 2017, at St. Clair, an officer saw a prisoner being stabbed by two other prisoners and radioed for help. The two prisoners had attacked their victim from behind while he was on the way to the dining hall. When the officer yelled for them to stop, one of the assailants ran from the officer, while the other continued stabbing the victim. Four other officers eventually arrived and stopped the assault. The victim was transported to an outside emergency room for treatment of stab wounds to the back, a perforated lung, and a stab wound to the head. Many of ADOC’s incident reports document life-threatening injuries to prisoners—only discovered by officers after the injury occurred.
- In April 2018, a Bullock prisoner, his shirt covered in blood, approached an officer and stated that he had been stabbed by several other prisoners. He had to be airlifted to an outside hospital for treatment.
- In April 2018, an officer at Kilby noticed a crowd of prisoners gathered in the back of an open dormitory. When the officer approached, he discovered a prisoner with a bleeding, partially detached ear. He had been fighting with another prisoner who tried to bite off his ear. The prisoner was ultimately taken to an outside hospital for treatment.
- In March 2018, a prisoner at Kilby approached an officer with visible burns on his body. The prisoner told the officer another prisoner had thrown hot shaving cream on him—hot enough to cause second-degree chemical burns. The prisoner was taken to an outside emergency room, but his condition was so bad that he had to be transported by ambulance to a hospital an hour and a half away.
- In February 2018, a Fountain prisoner was stabbed 10 times by another prisoner, including stab wounds to his medial lower elbow through the fascia, left upper shoulder, left bicep, left inner upper arm, left palm, left upper thigh, left upper medial calf, lower medial calf, and behind his right knee. He was airlifted to an outside hospital. A search recovered a homemade weapon that was approximately nine inches long.
- In February 2018, a Holman officer noticed a prisoner walking toward the gate of his housing unit with blood on his clothes. He had been stabbed 22 times by two other prisoners, with wounds to his back and head, and had to be airlifted to an outside hospital.
- In January 2018, a Holman prisoner came to the gate of his housing unit, bleeding. He had been stabbed 22 times, including to his chest, upper arm, thigh, back, buttock, foot, and face, by six other prisoners.
- In January 2018, a cubicle officer at Holman noticed a prisoner walking towards the shower area covered in blood. He had been attacked by two prisoners with a knife, resulting in a facial laceration that severed an artery. The prisoner had to be airlifted to an outside hospital due to arterial bleeding.
- In December 2017, at Holman, a cubicle officer observed a prisoner standing at the housing unit gate bleeding from his arm and chest. The prisoner had been assaulted and stabbed by multiple prisoners, suffering puncture wounds to his back, chest, arm, and head, as well as lacerations to his arm and head. Due to the severity of his injuries, the prisoner had to be airlifted to an outside hospital.
- In November 2017, a Holman prisoner was stabbed in the head, back, shoulders, and both arms and legs. He had to be transported to an outside hospital for emergency surgery. An officer only became aware of the stabbing when he heard several prisoners banging on the cell bars and shouting to get his attention, then saw other prisoners carrying the victim, who was bleeding profusely, toward the unit’s door.
- In November 2017, at Holman, a cubicle officer observed a prisoner walking towards the gate of an open dormitory with blood on his clothing, and called for assistance. When officers arrived, they found a prisoner with a bloody face. The prisoner, and another witness to the assault, confirmed he had been stabbed in the eye and beaten by two prisoners for resisting a sexual assault. The victim was sent by ambulance to an outside emergency room.
- In October 2017, St. Clair officers noticed a prisoner leave his unit and enter the prison yard wearing only a blanket and socks. Only then did staff discover that the prisoner “had been assaulted and severely beaten,” appearing to have been bound and taped around his hands, ankles, mouth, and head, and had a fresh burn mark on his face.
- In September 2017, at Easterling, a prisoner was attacked in the prison yard by three prisoners and stabbed multiple times. But no ADOC staff were aware of the assault until an officer saw several prisoners carrying the victim toward the health care unit.
- In July 2017, at Elmore, an officer observed a gathering of prisoners at the back of the dormitory and saw that one prisoner was bleeding from his chest. He radioed for assistance and the prisoner was escorted to the health care unit. The prisoner was taken by helicopter to an outside emergency room. The stabbing happened when the victim tried to intercede and stop a fight between two other prisoners.
- In July 2017, a prisoner at Kilby approached the shift commander to let him know that he had been stabbed in the chest by two other prisoners. The prisoner was sent by ambulance to an emergency room for treatment. Later, a homemade knife was found under the mattress of one of the suspected attackers.
- In April 2017, at Elmore, a prisoner informed an officer in an open dormitory that he had just been stabbed in the back. The prisoner was taken by ambulance to an outside hospital where he underwent emergency surgery for a punctured lung. The weapon used to stab the victim could not be found.
- In April 2017, an officer at Limestone saw a prisoner standing in the day room with multiple injuries to his head. The prisoner was escorted to the health care unit and then taken to an outside hospital for treatment for facial lacerations. The prisoner reported he had been attacked by another prisoner over a missing jug of julep (a prison-made alcoholic mixture).
- In February 2017, at Bibb, an officer saw a prisoner with blood running from his face. He escorted the prisoner to the health care unit where he was immediately transported to an outside emergency room. Later video review showed that the prisoner had been assaulted by two other prisoners with a mop. The victim required numerous stitches, and because of a cut to his lung, he had to be hospitalized overnight at an outside hospital.
Another pattern that emerges in ADOC’s incident reports is the prevalence of drugs in the facilities and the effect that has on prisoner-on-prisoner violence. ADOC management, staff, and prisoners all reported that prisoners on drugs often “wig out” and harm others, and the inability to pay drug debts has led to beatings, stabbings, and homicides. The following are some of the many examples documented in ADOC incident reports:
- In April 2018, an officer observed that a Donaldson prisoner had blood on his clothing. The prisoner was transported to the hospital with multiple stab wounds. The investigation revealed that the victim “was likely under the influence of narcotics” when he began poking another prisoner, who was asleep, with a knife. That prisoner woke up, grabbed the knife, and stabbed the first prisoner several times.
- In September 2017, officers were called to a Draper dormitory due to one prisoner bleeding from multiple stab wounds and another bleeding from the crown on his head. The prisoner who had been stabbed admitted that he had been high on Suboxone for two days. While he was high, the prisoner had bleach poured on him, was beaten with a broken mop handle, and was stabbed several times. The drugged prisoner also assaulted another prisoner with a lock on a string.
- In August 2017, a Bibb prisoner stabbed another prisoner in the back multiple times while high on drugs. The victim had to be airlifted to an outside hospital. Officers recovered the assailant’s knife. Despite noting that the assailant had slurred speech and “appeared to be on an unknown substance,” there is no indication that ADOC officers conducted a search for contraband drugs.
A Week in the Life
A review of a single week in September 2017 found the following:
Sunday: A prisoner at St. Clair woke up from his sleep with two men beating him with a sock filled with metal locks; a prisoner at Ventress was stabbed by two others; two different Ventress inmates were injured in separate incidents; a prisoner at Stanton threatened a correctional officer with a 7-inch knife; another Stanton prisoner reported being sexually assaulted by a fellow inmate.
Tuesday: A Fountain prisoner set fire to a fellow prisoner’s blanket while he was sleeping.
Wednesday: An Easterling prisoner, who had been sexually assaulted a week earlier, was sexually assaulted again.
Thursday: A Ventress prisoner was beaten by four others and a different inmate reported being sexually assaulted.
Friday: A prisoner at Bibb Correctional Facility was stabbed to death by two other inmates and a fellow inmate who tried to intervene was also stabbed; a Stanton inmate was stabbed multiple times and had to be taken to a hospital by helicopter.
Saturday: Four prisoners at Elmore beat up a fellow inmate; a prisoner at Ventress was caught with 17 cigarettes laced with drugs, a bag of meth and other substances.
Investigators said it’s likely that other serious incidents happened that week, but were not reported.
Think twice before doing something that may land you in prison. If these real stories don’t change the mindset of a potential criminal, I fear nothing will.
“It’s like playing Russian roulette when you come into these prisons. When you’ve got kids, a lot of young kids come in here, and a lot of folks get taken advantage of as soon as they come in here. Targeted for rape, extortion, all types of stuff in here. The DOC ain’t doing nothing. They’re just here basically to keep you in prison. It’s like they condone it.”
“I’ve seen old, elderly people in wheelchairs get jumped on and robbed and get beat real bad. There’s nothing you can do about it. Officers don’t do nothing. I’ve seen a man get beat so bad in here, and the officers dragged him back in and put him in the same dorm.”
The information in this article was gleaned from the DOJ’s Investigation of Alabama’s State Prison for Men. Click HERE to view the original comprehensive document.