Prisoner advocacy group demands coronavirus precautions for Alabama’s incarcerated
With the coronavirus spreading quickly across the country, Alabamians for Fair Justice — a broad coalition of advocates supporting reform in Alabama’s criminal justice system — is demanding that state officials ensure the health and safety of people in jails and prisons, and release those people most at risk of suffering serious complications or death from contracting coronavirus (COVID-19). The coalition sent a letter to Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn calling on him to develop evidence-based protocols and proactively plan the prevention and management of a COVID-19 outbreak. According to the letter, “imprisoned and detained people are highly vulnerable to outbreaks of contagious illnesses such as COVID-19. People incarcerated in jails and prisons are housed in close quarters and are often in poor health.” Coupled with the fact state facilities have been deemed overcrowded, incarcerated persons are at an increased risk during a viral outbreak. “Without the active engagement of those who administer these facilities, they have little ability to learn about ongoing public health crises or to take necessary preventative measures if they do manage to learn of them.” The coalition asks the state to: Educate both staff and the people detained in local, state, and federal facilities on the dangers of the virus and how to avoid contracting it; Keep infected staff out of facilities and isolate individuals who have tested positive; avoid lockdowns; Regularly screen and test all individuals in the facility and those who work there; ensure free and accessible phone communication with family members and confidential access to legal counsel; Release elderly and medically fragile people before they contract the disease; release people in pretrial detention who are charged with nonviolent offenses; Limit future pretrial detention by issuing citations rather than arresting and booking people into jail; And approve early release of people who are within six months of their end of sentence date. A full list of Alabamians for Fair Justice coalition members may be viewed here.
Attorneys: Alabama Making Little Progress in Prison Staffing
This follows a court order that state prisons increase staffing dramatically by 2022.
Prison construction proposal inches forward
Alabama is inching forward with a plan to build three new prisons. The Alabama Department of Corrections on Monday will open company responses to a “request for qualifications” from firms interested in building the proposed new prisons. A spokeswoman for Gov. Kay Ivey said the state will release the names of the companies on Monday. Ivey in February announced a plan to build three new prisons. She said state officials will first gather proposals from companies and then decide how to proceed. The administration is exploring the possibility of leasing the prisons. Ivey told reporters Friday that they are evaluating the process, but said that approach appears to be a “win-win.” The proposed prisons would each house more than 3,000 male inmates. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Kay Ivey unveils proposal to build new prisons
Saying Alabama needs a solution to its ongoing prison crisis, Gov. Kay Ivey is seeking bids to build three large new prisons. Ivey made the announcement during a Tuesday news conference. Ivey said Alabama has a “major problem” with prison conditions and overcrowding, and must have a solution. She said the prison system is seeking proposals from contractors. Ivey said the administration will then decide how to proceed. Options include borrowing money to build them or leasing them from private companies. Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said two prisons would house about 3,000 male inmates each and another would be a specialty facility for inmates with medical and mental health needs. The administration estimated construction would cost about $900 million, but Dunn said they think consolidation savings would cover the cost. Republished with permission from the Associated Press
Judge: Alabama has been ‘indifferent’ to isolated inmates
A federal judge said Monday that Alabama has been “deliberately indifferent” about monitoring the mental health of state inmates placed in the isolation of segregation cells. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued the ruling days after attorneys for inmates said the suicide rate in state prisons has reached a crisis level. “The court finds that the (Alabama prison system’s) failure to provide adequate periodic mental-health assessments of prisoners in segregation creates a substantial risk of serious harm for those prisoners,” Thompson wrote in the 66-page order. Thompson wrote that prison officials have been “deliberately indifferent with regard to their failure to provide adequate periodic evaluations of mental health to prisoners in segregation.” Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Horton said the department is reviewing the decision. Thompson in 2017 wrote that mental health care in state prisons was “horrendously inadequate” and violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. In his Monday order, Thompson said the failure to adequately monitor inmates in segregation contributes to the unconstitutional conditions. Thompson directed the prison system and attorneys for inmates to confer on how to proceed. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which is representing inmates in the ongoing class-action lawsuit over prison mental health care, praised the decision. “It has been evident for years that ADOC has failed to identify, monitor, and properly care for people who have serious mental illnesses and who develop them in ADOC custody. That systematic failure has led to needless suffering, especially for people in segregation,” said Maria Morris, senior supervising attorney at the SPLC. The advocacy organization said Friday that there have been 13 suicides in 14 months. “People are killing themselves in our prisons because conditions are horrendous,” Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen said at a news conference with the families of inmates. The prison system said in a response Friday that it was working to address the issue, and said the suicide spike “calls into question the long-term effectiveness of the suicide prevention measures proposed by the SPLC” during the litigation. Republished with permission from the Associated Press
Advocacy group: Alabama has prison suicide crisis
An advocacy group charged Friday that Alabama officials have failed to address a rising suicide rate in state prisons despite a federal court order to improve conditions for mentally ill inmates. Attorneys representing inmates in an ongoing lawsuit over mental health care argued state officials have done “precious little” to address inmate suicides. “People are killing themselves in our prisons because conditions are horrendous,” Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen said at a news conference outside the Alabama Statehouse. The organization said there have been 13 suicides in 14 months, the latest one on Wednesday. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s office and the prison system did not immediately react to the allegations. A prison system spokesman said the department was working on a response. However, a state lawmaker said the prison system is working to improve conditions, but cautioned it will take time. “There is no question the suicide rate is higher than it should be. The data speaks for itself,” said state Sen. Cam Ward, who chairs a prison oversight committee. Alabama Department of Corrections monthly reports list that they were four inmate suicides in fiscal year 2017 and six in 2018. In late December and January, there were three suicides within four weeks in the state prisons. With their 8-year-old granddaughter beside her, Jerri Ford wiped away tears as she described the loss of her husband, Paul Ford. “He was our everything, everything and we don’t have him anymore. And it’s not right,” Jerri Ford said. Paul Ford, 49, was found hanging last month from a bed sheet in his cell at Kilby Correctional Facility. He was serving a sentence of life in prison without parole following a murder conviction. In court filings, the SPLC said, Ford had a prior suicide attempt and spent much of the past year in a restrictive setting or on some form of crisis watch. Jerri Ford said in the months before his death, she began to worry about her husband’s mental state. “He was seeing things, hallucinating. … He was scared to go to sleep,” she said. Inmate lawyers have asked a federal judge to block the state from placing prisoners with serious mental illnesses into segregation units or similar settings, where they said the extreme isolation becomes an incubator for worsening mental health symptoms. The judge responded by asking for the state to provide information on how many inmates are in such settings. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson in 2017 ruled that mental health care in Alabama prisons was “horrendously inadequate.” In court filings, the state contends it has added mental health staff and is working to increase the number of corrections officers working in state prisons. Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn told lawmakers last month that the department is seeking a funding increase to hire 500 additional corrections officers, what he called a “down payment” amid plans to eventually add 2,000 correctional officers Ivey is expected to announce a proposal soon to replace state prisons, possibly leasing facilities built by private firms. The SPLC criticized the push for prison construction, saying the plan will be costly when the state faces a staff shortage. “Jamming thousands of people into some shiny new building will not solve the constitutional violations,” Maria Morris, an attorney with the SPLC, said. Republished with permission from the Associated Press
Judge says execution can proceed without imam present
A federal judge on Friday ruled that a Muslim inmate’s scheduled lethal injection can proceed next week without an imam present but said Alabama must keep a Christian prison chaplain out of the execution chamber. U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins denied a stay requested by Dominique Ray, 42. Ray is scheduled to be executed Feb. 7 for the 1995 fatal stabbing of 15-year-old Tiffany Harville. Ray says his religious rights are being violated because Alabama has a Christian prison chaplain present at lethal injections, but will not let him have an imam in the room with him as the lethal drugs are administered. Ray’s lawyers argued that he has the same right to religious comfort in his final moments as a Christian inmate. Watkins said for security reasons the state can limit death chamber access to prison employees. The judge ordered the state to keep the prison chaplain out of the death chamber during Ray’s execution. The state already said it was willing to do so. Condemned inmates in Alabama can visit with their spiritual adviser before their execution and have the person witness the procedure through the glass window of an adjoining room. However, only the prison chaplain and a correctional officer are in the room with the inmate during the lethal injection procedure. The chaplain will sometimes kneel and pray with an inmate who is strapped to a gurney. Court records indicate that Ray is appealing. Ray’s lawyers are also seeking a new trial, saying prosecutors did not disclose records that showed a key witness was suffering from symptoms of schizophrenia before he testified against Ray. Harville disappeared from her Selma home in July 1995. Her decomposing body was found in a field a month later. Ray was convicted in 1999 after co-defendant Marcus Owden told police that they had picked the girl up for a night out on the town and then raped her. Owden said Ray cut the girl’s throat and they also took the girl’s purse, which had $6 or $7 in it. Owden pleaded guilty to murder, testified against Ray and is serving a life sentence without parole. Republished with permission from the Associated Press
Alabama prison system ordered to report mental health segregation data
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued an order for the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) to report how many inmates with mental illnesses have been placed in segregation units, The Associated Press reports. This comes when attorneys for inmates requested intervention after three suicides occurred in four weeks in state prisons. Thompson previously instructed state prisons not to isolate prisoners without extenuating circumstances after finding in 2017 that care for mentally ill inmates was “horrendously inadequate.” History of mental health issues in Alabama prisons The issue of mental health care in state prisons has been ongoing. In December 2018, Alabama prison officials stated that they were making “substantial progress” in increasing mental health staff and asked not to be held in contempt of court of an order requiring minimum levels of mental health staff. In a December filing, the ADOC wrote that Wexford Health Sources, the contractor hired to provide health care, had not been able to meet staffing targets but said “both are making all efforts to increase staffing as quickly as possible.” The letter continued, “In sum, the state is not contending that it has fulfilled every requirement of the staffing remedial order. But it has made in good faith all reasonable efforts to do so, and those efforts have resulted in substantial progress.” They claimed that a shortage of professionals available, especially in rural areas, has made staffing difficult. Lawyers for the inmates wrote “Defendants’ contempt is placing prisoners with serious mental-health needs at a substantial risk of serious harm every day. Their failures are most evident when looking at staffing levels for mental-health staff with advanced training, specifically psychiatrists, CRNPs, psychologists, and registered nurses.” In September of 2018, the Southern Poverty Law Center asked Judge Thompson to hold the ADOC in contempt. “Adequate staffing is critical to address the mental health needs and secure the safety of the prisoners in ADOC’s care,” said Maria Morris, senior supervising attorney at the SPLC. “Time and time again, ADOC has failed to meet court-ordered deadlines to fill essential staffing positions. We have no confidence that ADOC is doing all it can to hire enough staff to care for prisoners with mental illnesses. We are asking the court to rule ADOC in contempt for continuing to fail to meet these court-ordered deadlines.” This came after a warden testified in February 2018 after a mentally ill prisoner committed suicide.
State might lease prisons, instead of building them
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s options for replacing state prisons could include leasing facilities built by a private firm. Ivey in her inaugural address Monday said that she would be announcing a prison plan in the coming days. Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Horton wrote in a Friday email that the department is evaluating the possible construction of three new regional men’s correctional facilities. Horton said the analysis will evaluate the best approach for constructing the facilities “either through a bond issue, or a build-lease option.” Legislators in 2017 rejected a prison construction bill because of concerns about the price tag and job losses when existing prisons closed. State Sen. Cam Ward said one option before Ivey is to contract with a company that builds prisons and “lease it back.” Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
In effort to break drug-crime nexus, Kay Ivey awards grant for drug rehabilitation in state prisons
The State of Alabama is continuing to take steps to help inmates at state prisons overcome drug addictions that may have led or contributed to their prison terms. On Wednesday, Gov. Kay Ivey awarded $504,892 in grant funding to the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) program to help break this drug-crime nexus. The program is six-month course that will be conducted at seven prisons —Bullock Correctional Facility; Bibb Correctional Facility; Donaldson Correctional Facility; Easterling Correctional Facility; Staton Correctional Facility; Tutwiler Correctional Facility; Ventress Correctional Facility — with the intention of breaking the link between drug addiction and criminal activity. “We should strive to ensure that once a person is released from prison they will become a productive member of society,” Ivey said. “This program provides inmates the opportunity to escape their drug habit while in prison and create a new slate when they are released.” According to Bob Horton, Public Information Manager at ADOC, “the grant more than doubles the funding that the treatment program has received in previous years, which will enable the ADOC to expand services.” The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) is administering the program from funds made available to the state from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ describes that is goal of the RSAT Program “is to break the cycle of drugs and violence by reducing the demand for, use, and trafficking of illegal drugs. RSAT enhances the capability of states and units of local government to provide residential substance abuse treatment for incarcerated inmates; prepares offenders for their reintegration into the communities from which they came by incorporating reentry planning activities into treatment programs; and assists offenders and their communities through the reentry process through the delivery of community-based treatment and other broad-based aftercare services.” RSAT in Alabama In Alabama, the six-month RSAT Program curriculum is divided into three phases of treatment that are two months each. “In the program’s first phase, inmates who are enrolled take part in full-time treatment activities aimed at dealing with denial of addiction, recognition of drug abuse consequences, understanding of the addiction cycle, and a thorough understanding of the recovery cycle,” Horton explained. “The program’s second phase exposes inmates to recovery issues closely related to substance abuse such as anger management, character defects, criminal thinking, and poor coping skills and habit development. In the third phase, the program focuses on relapse prevention and aftercare planning while working to develop positive life skills.” The ADOC offers aftercare dorms with 768 beds to those who are enrolled in the program to allow a person to spend time practicing and refining their daily addiction recovery. The program will be conducted by counselors who specialize in drug addictions and inmates receive drug screenings while in the program to monitor their success and to measure the program’s effectiveness. “Our main objective is to foster a person’s sobriety and to help them develop a responsible lifestyle once they return back to their community,” said Horton. As of August 2018, 314 prisoners have completed the RSAT program in 2018. Ivey notified Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) Commissioner Jeff Dunn the FY2018 grant had been approved.
As push for ending bail continues, group works to release JeffCo arrestees
Amid a national conversation about abolishing cash bail in an effort to create a more equitable criminal justice system, that’s not as dependent on a person’s wealth, the Justice Collaborative (TJC) — an independent, nonpartisan research and advocacy organization devoted to holding public officials accountable for reforming the justice system — is taking matters in their own hands as they try and pursue justice for local arrestees. TJC is currently attempting to assistance people currently detained in the Jefferson County jail due to a failure to appear (FTA) charges for non-violent offenses like unpaid traffic violations, marijuana possession and other low level offenses. TJC has donors who would like to pay bails for individuals and help get them out of jail. FTAs in Jefferson County According to the TJC, during July 2018, over one-third of the people booked into the Jefferson County Jail had a failure to appear warrant or charge. That translates to 355 people held on FTA charges who had no underlying violent felony conviction. The TJC explains the situation on their website: Judges and district attorneys in Alabama and Jefferson County are destabilizing defendants and their families with failure to appear (FTA) charges. In Jefferson County, pretrial defendants are released from jail without being notified of their next court date. Instead, the court instructs them to call a phone number days later in order to get the information. Many have complained that getting through on the provided number is difficult and at times impossible. This leaves defendants with no way of knowing their court dates, making FTA charges inevitable. Currently, neither the court nor District Attorney (DA) have a system or policy in place to check the location of a defendant before issuing a warrant. As a result, there have been instances where a warrants have been issued while an individual is detained in another county or in prison. Defendants are released in one jurisdiction only to be arrested in another. Further TJC recommendations The TJC believe the
SPLC asks judge to rule Alabama’s prison system in contempt over mental health staffing
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is asking U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson to hold the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) in contempt for failing to meet deadlines for increasing mental health staffing. “Adequate staffing is critical to address the mental health needs and secure the safety of the prisoners in ADOC’s care,” said Maria Morris, senior supervising attorney at the SPLC. “Time and time again, ADOC has failed to meet court-ordered deadlines to fill essential staffing positions. We have no confidence that ADOC is doing all it can to hire enough staff to care for prisoners with mental illnesses. We are asking the court to rule ADOC in contempt for continuing to fail to meet these court-ordered deadlines.” In the summer of 2017, Thompson ruled Alabama’s psychiatric care of state inmates is “horrendously inadequate” and in violation the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In February, he set deadlines in May, June and July for increasing mental health staff, which the ADOC has failed to do. On Friday, Thompson issued an order requesting a hearing to begin Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Montgomery, Ala. to give ADOC the opportunity to show they should not be held in contempt. Parties ruled to be in contempt can face fines and, in some cases, jail time. SPLC is asking here that a monitor be appointed to oversee how ADOC is progressing and to keep the Court and the Plaintiffs informed.
