Stacy George warns that understaffed prisons pose a threat to public safety

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Photo Credit: Stacy George

Stacy George is a former Morgan County Commissioner. George, a published author, has twice run for the Republican nomination for Governor of Alabama (2014 and 2022). However, for the last 13 and a half years, George has worked as a corrections officer for the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) – until yesterday.

George is just the latest ADOC officer who, overwhelmed by the hours, personal risks, and conditions of the state’s prisons, has left government service. George told Alabama Today on Thursday that he is frustrated by the “inhumane” conditions and is planning a new book exposing the problems at ADOC titled: At what point does punishment become revenge?

George takes pride that the fact that in his time in ADOC service, he never had to use force on an inmate.

“I have never had to spray an inmate, and I have never had to use a baton on one,” George said. “I usually don’t even carry a baton.”

George said that the prisons are so understaffed that he fears that the inmates could potentially take control of one or more of the overcrowded facilities.

“At any time, they can take a prison,” George warned. “It is a danger to the officers, the people that work there. The public is in danger.”

George charged that often there are only 8 guards on duty at night (and sometimes as few as six) at an ADOC facility that holds 2,300.

“There is no telling what they would do to the women in there if they took control,” George said, referring to the women officers that ADOC has hired to work in the prisons.

George said that he has been tasked with taking the inmates to the showers even though the facilities are chronically understaffed.

“That’s a job for three officers, and I have had to do it by myself,” George said. “When one has to go to the hospital, that is a job for three officers, and I have had to do that by myself. If he gets by me, he is loose in the hospital, and their guards aren’t even armed. I am thinking, what if I have to go to the bathroom while we are there?”

“They told me I cannot even provide them with soap,” George continued. “When are we going to get some soap?”

George said that he has had to frequently serve as the only guard on an entire cell block – normally a job for three guards and that there have even been shifts where they did not have a guard for each area, so in some of the dorms, the prisoners “just had to police themselves.”

U.S. Judge Myron Thompson has ordered ADOC to hire 2,000 more guards – a mission that the troubled system has failed to do despite three years of trying.

George said that ADOC depends on its officers working overtime to keep the facilities guarded.

“When I go in there, I bring my lunch and my dinner because I don’t know when I am coming out. It could be ten hours, 12 hours, or 16 hours,” George said. “I am going to go to my grandson’s birthday party. I have not seen him for a year, I am going to be able to go to my Church, where they only see me about once a month.”

The U.S. Department of Justice has accused ADOC of running the most dangerous prison system in the country and has sued the state claiming that a sentence to an Alabama prison constitutes a “cruel and unusual punishment” and is thus an unconstitutional violation of the Eighth Amendment.

“How we treat them is shameful,” George said. “There are only two nurses for 2,300 inmates.”

George said that in his tenure at ADOC, he has had to deal with between 50 and 100 stabbings of inmates.

“It’s way over 50 – it could be a hundred,” George said. “One time, we came in, and there were blood trails all over the place. It took us four hours to find all the (stabbed) prisoners because there we were so short-staffed.”

George said that inmates attempting, or threatening suicide, is a frequent occurrence.

“The inmate said he was going to kill himself, and he cut himself with a razor blade,” George said.

George then called for help, and the supervisor on the other end of the line asked, “How bad is he bleeding? Do you think he is trying to kill himself, and I said yes.”

The inmate did not die.

“There are prisoners down on the ground flopping in diabetic comas, and you don’t know whether it is that or a drug overdose,” George said.

George said that he was involved in an accident a year ago, and since then, walking up and down the stairs inside the facility has become difficult for him. ADOC knew of his difficulty but did not give him any accommodations, ultimately leading to his resignation.

“They have called and offered me two jobs since then,” George said of ADOC.

George said that he is holding a press conference in front of the Department of Corrections headquarters in Montgomery on Friday.

“I am going to blow the doors off of this system,” George said.

To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.