Families of people being held in Alabama prisons testified before lawmakers in Montgomery on Wednesday, sharing accounts of rape, murder, extortion, beatings and rampant drug use.
Betty Martin told the prison oversight committee that her son, Derrick, called her to document the stabbing and beatings he suffered during six years behind bars.
“He told me, ‘Mom, I’m tired of getting beat… I’m sending these pictures to you because one day you’re going to need them. They’re going to kill me in here,” she testified in front of the committee.
Her son was killed at Elmore Correctional Facility last year. “On December 12, 2023, at 6:30 a.m., we got a call. ‘He’s dead,’” she told the committee.
This is how Martin summed up what she saw from the Alabama Department of Corrections: “third world country, drugs, murder, extortion, overdoses, gangs, lost hope…”
The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Alabama, arguing the prisons are unconstitutionally overcrowded and dangerous.
At the Joint Prison Oversight Committee hearing in Montgomery on Wednesday, people in the audience cried as families told stories of violence against loved ones behind bars. Many wore T-shirts memorializing family members who died in custody.
Rosa Williams testified that her brother, who has schizophrenia, has been stabbed, raped and had his teeth knocked out at Elmore Correctional Facility.
“The system is not set up to help the mentally ill,” Rush, who works in the medical field, told the committee.
She said their family has been extorted by other inmates who demanded money in exchange for his life.
“I stand here today pleading for his life,” Williams told the committee. “Please know my greatest hope is that he comes home alive.”
Rev. Bobby White, who represented a coalition of pastors throughout Alabama, testified about widespread drug use in prisons and asked for more counseling options.
In the first three months of this year, there were 22 overdose deaths in state prisons, according to statistics from the department of corrections.
“If you weren’t a drug addict when you go into prison, you shouldn’t be one when you get out,” White testified.
Shauntae Roney told the committee her brother was on a list for COVID release but was never let out. She said the family frequently requested wellness checks because he faced threats and assaults inside Donaldson prison.
In June, just five months before his release date, he was stabbed in the head and the back and left outside to die, Roney testified. She said other inmates brought him back inside the facility, but their family never got answers about what happened
‘We were saving money all this time for him to be productive [when he got out] and we had to bury him with that money,” Roney said.
Eddie Burkhalter, a researcher at the nonprofit Alabama Appleseed, testified that the prisons have a 61% staff vacancy, leaving them short by more than 2,000 officers.
Burkhalter said the nonprofit obtained records showing that 366 staff were fired between 2018 and 2023, including 134 who were “charged with work-related crimes, ranging from smuggling contraband to assault and murder.”
State Sen. Clyde Chambliss presided over the hearing, telling the crowd in an opening statement that “some folks think that we can just go tomorrow and make changes immediately.”
“That’s not the way our system is designed,” he said. “That’s not the way it works.”
Many lawmakers, including those on the oversight committee, were not present at the hearing. Chambliss said they would be watching remotely.
State Sen. Vivian Figure said she was “so disappointed when I drove up this morning and the parking lot was empty.”
Figures, who is not on the committee but testified during the public hearing, said lawmakers should “spend time in prison for a few days” to see what prisoners in Alabama go through. She said her son spent time in prison years ago.
“We have lost so many lives in our state prisons that it is unconscionable and truly unacceptable,” Figures testified. “They should do the time but they should be safe.”
State Rep. Chris England, who has introduced a number of prison reform bills in the past few years, said that this hearing still had more people than he’d seen in any prior committee meeting.
“Last time we had this meeting, no one from ADOC came. Now they are here,” England said.
England said public attention and reporting on the prison system and the parole board was leading to change, citing higher parole rates in the state.
“Keep fighting, push harder,” England encouraged the crowd. “Build your army and continue fighting.”
The oversight committee holds four meetings a year, including one public hearing. The next committee meeting will be Oct. 23 at 10:30 a.m.
Ivana Hrynkiw contributed reporting to this story.
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