Jemma Stephenson, Alabama Reflector
Family members of people incarcerated in Alabama’s prisons said at a State Capitol rally Wednesday that their loved ones are not being treated as human beings.
The rally, which took place before a Joint Prison Oversight Committee meeting at the statehouse, focused on the violence and mistreatment that incarcerated people in the state face.
Violence and overcrowding are endemic in the state’s correctional facilities. Alabama entered a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2015 over allegations of sexual harassment and abuse at Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka. In two reports in 2019 and 2020, the DOJ detailed violence among inmates and assaults on inmates from correctional officers in men’s correctional facilities.
The DOJ sued Alabama in 2020, alleging the violence violated inmates’ Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. The lawsuits are pending.
Cookie Garner, who said she has three sons who have been in the state’s prison system, said that one of them had been sexually assaulted while behind bars.
“And his mother stands in front of you with an innocent child still in prison that has been raped,” she said. “He has been assaulted, he has been beaten by guards, and still in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.”
Another son has been in prison for almost 15 years, she said. A third has been released from prison, but struggles with mental illness and needs supervision.
Shantelle Quinley said that her son is incarcerated and alleged that he was denied medical attention after being attacked on Nov. 21. Quinley said her son did not get medical attention until Dec. 5, two weeks later.
“He had a shattered elbow, broken nose, shattered ankle, and a broken tibia,” she said. “Could you imagine laying like that from November 21 to December 5, with no medication besides me trying to get ibuprofen to him?”
Quinley said her son, a mechanic by training, has 60% motion in his left arm due to damage from delayed care.
Kelly Helton, who said she has at times been the spouse, aunt, and niece of someone incarcerated, spoke about the high rates of death in Alabama prisons.
“I don’t care what the death was caused by,” she said. “By God, you’re in charge of our loved ones, to protect them, to rehabilitate them, and to make sure they are safe. How can you do that when there’s beatings going on for days on end and not a guard in sight?”
Messages seeking comment were sent to the Alabama Department of Corrections on Wednesday.
According to a Jan. 2023 Alabama Appleseed report, 266 people had died in prison through Dec. 28, 2022. According to a March 2023 Equal Justice Initiative publication, Alabama’s prison homicide rate is seven times the national average. A staff attorney, Sofia McDonald, from EJI spoke at the rally.
“This is an emergency and should be treated as such,” Sofia McDonald, an EJI staff attorney, said at the rally.
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