FBI launches probe after Alabama inmate activist injured
Three correctional officers are on leave as the FBI helps to investigate a prison altercation that hospitalized two officers and two inmates, including a well-known prison rights activist, the Alabama prison system said Monday. The Alabama Department of Corrections said the incident occurred between staff and inmates at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer on Jan. 30. The two officers suffered stab wounds and Robert Earl Council and Ephan Moore, both inmates at the prison, were transported to hospitals for treatment for their injuries, the prison system said. Council, sometimes known as Kinetic Justice, is a prison rights activist who has been involved with prison strikes and other organization efforts. He is serving life without parole for murder. The U.S. Department of Justice has an ongoing lawsuit against Alabama alleging that state inmates are subjected to unconstitutional levels of violence from both inmate-on-inmate assaults and a pattern of excessive force. The state has denied the federal accusation. The department said it could not release additional information until the investigation is complete. “We can, however, confirm that three correctional officers have been placed on mandatory leave pending the results of the investigation. We also can confirm that the FBI has agreed to assist in conducting a joint investigation into the incident,” Corrections spokeswoman Samantha Rose said. Rose said it was not unusual to ask for federal help in an “investigation of this nature where federal law potentially may have been violated.” She did not elaborate. The prison system said Council was taken to a hospital but is now back in prison custody. Catrice Britt, Council’s niece, said her uncle was trying to intervene in an altercation between guards and Moore. “Robert Earl stepped in to help the guy. … He is in a lot of pain. He has stitches in his head, broken ribs, eyes swollen shut,” Britt told The Associated Press. Videos circulated on social media that the poster said was shot in the aftermath of the violence. The videos appeared to show a large amount of blood on the prison floor and inmates coughing from lingering pepper spray, or another chemical agent, in the air. An inmate says, “they jumped on Robert Earl.” Activists said the incident with Council and Moore needs scrutiny. “What is happening with the training?” said Kenny Glasgow, the founder of the Ordinary People’s Society, a nonprofit focused on criminal justice issues. Kenneth Traywick, another inmate organizer who is in a separate prison, said the organization effort is non-violent and said that inmate organizers have faced retaliation. “We don’t operate with violence,” Traywick said. The prison system said it is investigating the death of an inmate found unresponsive in his cell. David Lee Franklin, 31, was found unresponsive in his cell Tuesday and was declared deceased by facility medical staff, prison officials said. Franklin was serving a 10-year sentence for possession of a controlled substance out of Jefferson County Dewitt Searight, 77, passed away at a local hospital on Monday from an apparent ongoing medical issue, the prison system said. He was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for murder out of Butler County. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
COVID-19 in custody: Alabama ranks 9th for inmate deaths
At the Bibb Correctional Facility in Alabama, the old prison chapel has been turned into a quarantine zone. The sound of coughing is constant. And some people appear afraid to enter the room. An inmate described life in the quarantine to The Associated Press, speaking anonymously for fear of retaliation. The prison system has enforced the wearing of masks among inmates, but he said crowded dormitories like his offer nowhere to hide from the virus. He said he became so weak he could not stand. “He said they are just laying around like flies,” said Bonita Jackson, whose brother is a Bibb inmate who was hospitalized. “You can’t hardly hear him. He is gasping for breath.” As coronavirus cases skyrocket nationwide, they are also rising again in prisons, which are plagued by close contact and lack of good hygiene. In Alabama prisons alone, 34 people — 32 inmates and two staff members — have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began. That ranks ninth in the country for the number of COVID-19 deaths per 10,000 inmates, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press and the Marshall Project. Criminal justice reform advocates have called for the release of vulnerable and elderly inmates and an increase in paroles to alleviate extreme overcrowding, as well as the mass testing of inmates. “These numbers are so disturbing, but not at all surprising given the culture and conditions in Alabama prisons. The Department of Corrections has failed to provide for the basic safety of people in its custody for years and COVID has escalated those failures,” said Carla Crowder, executive director of Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. “What people should understand is that it did not have to be this bad,” she said. The Alabama Department of Corrections said in a statement that it has taken multiple steps to combat the virus behind bars. “As we continue to monitor the impact of COVID-19 in our facilities, the primary goal, and concern of the ADOC is protecting the safety, security, and well-being of our inmates and staff,” the prison system said in a statement emailed from spokeswoman Samantha Rose. The agency said each inmate was given four masks, more than 200 floor-mounted hand sanitizer dispensers have been installed, and room foggers, backpack sprayers, and other equipment are used to sanitize areas. Asked about the conditions described by inmates and their families, the prison system said the old chapel at Bibb is serving as a quarantine for symptomatic inmates awaiting COVID-19 test results, but the inmates are being closely monitored. “Using these non-traditional housing areas allows the ADOC to use all available space to quarantine positive cases while protecting other inmates from exposure,” the system said. Since the pandemic began, nearly 800 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, according to prison system numbers. The pandemic has also taken a toll on those that work in prisons. More than 600 Alabama prison employees have reported testing positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began. Most inmates and staff have recovered. Most deaths, like those outside prison walls, have occurred in inmates with preexisting health conditions, the prison system said. State Sen. Cam Ward, who was recently appointed by the governor as the new director of the Parole Bureau, said prison conditions where inmates are often “warehoused” in large rooms is a factor. “When you have 400-something people in one big room, it is going to spread disease,” Ward said. More than 1,000 people age 65 and older are behind bars in state prisons. Ward said older populations in prison include those sentenced for single violent crimes and those sentenced under the state’s habitual offender act before it was changed. “Because of that stringent three strikes, you’re out, you have a lot of people in there for life without parole, and that population in there is getting older,” Ward said. Kenneth Glasgow, founder of the Ordinary People Society dedicated to ending mass incarceration, said he is fielding calls from inmate families daily. He agreed with Crowder that the state should have pursued the release of some offenders and increased testing early in the pandemic. “We’ve got family members calling out the yin-yang. They are scared. They say their family member got a two- or three-year sentence for drugs, not a sickness sentence or a death sentence from COVID,” Glasgow said. January Corbitt said she has underlying health conditions and feared catching the coronavirus before her release from Tutwiler Prison for Women this fall. One inmate and two employees at the Wetumpka prison have died from COVID-19. “It’s scary. Right now, it’s scary,” Corbitt said. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Communities oppose new state mega-prisons near them
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s administration is negotiating with private companies to build three new mega-prisons as part of a solution to the state’s ongoing prison crisis, but some neighbors to the planned facilities aren’t happy about it. Residents in Elmore and Bibb counties are angered and frustrated by the decision to pick their communities. They expressed concern about possible escapes, traffic, and infrastructure and the fact there was no public input about building prisons for 3,000 inmates in their communities. Ivey announced last month that companies had been selected to build the proposed prisons in Elmore, Bibb, and Escambia counties that the state would then lease for the next 30 years. The administration said it would enter into negotiations with the companies for final details and construction would begin in 2021. One of the 3,000-inmate prisons will be located in Brierfield, a 1,600-person unincorporated community in Bibb County, where some residents say they moved for its tranquil, rural environment. The number of inmates housed in the facility will be about half the population of the nearest city, Montevallo, which has about 6,600 residents. Jackson McNeeley, one of the organizers of a group opposing the prison, said the isolated area, which has little law enforcement presence and no sewer system, does not have the infrastructure to support the large facility. “One of the concerns we have is that nobody was consulted,” McNeely told The Associated Press. “Bringing a prison is not going to help the citizens of Brierfield. It’s just not.” David Kline moved his family to Brierfield about 15 years ago, when he was a deputy for the Bibb County sheriff’s department. He told al.com he was looking for a quiet and a low-crime area when he was off-duty. He said no one in the community knew about the prison construction until it was reported in newspapers. “An article showed up and people started reading the article. There was no town hall. They never came to Brierfield and said, ‘Hey what do you think?’” Kline said he was concerned about corners being cut in the privately built construction as well as an increase in crime if people try to toss contraband over the fences. There are similar concerns in Elmore County. “The main entry road going into the prison you will be able to see from my backyard,” Leslie Ogburn, who lives near the site of a proposed Elmore County prison, told the Montgomery Advertiser. “We all loved it here, to be in the country, to be away from everything, (and) not to have a big prison light the country nights.” Samantha Rose, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, told the Advertiser that “historically — in Alabama and beyond — the development of a correctional facility within a community initially generates common concerns from residents.” “Looking only at our state, we have built strong relationships with our communities who value the presence of our facilities for the economic benefits they provide,” Rose wrote. Prison construction legislation failed when it came before the Alabama Legislature as lawmakers disagreed over the closures of existing prisons. Ivey is pursuing leases of privately built facilities that do not need legislative approval. Ivey has said the new prisons are needed to increase the safety of both officers and inmates. The plan has also run into criticism from advocacy groups and a mixed reception from state lawmakers, with some saying the leases will be costly without addressing systemic problems. Considered one of the most violent and understaffed systems in the country, the Alabama prison system has faced a litany of federal criticism. The U.S. Department of Justice said twice within 18 months that it believes Alabama houses male inmates in unconstitutional conditions for both a pattern of using excessive force by officers and excessive inmate-on-inmate violence. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson has also ruled the state’s treatment of mentally ill prisoners was “horrendously inadequate.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
