DIG DEEPER
U.S. Department of Justice Investigation
2019 Report, “There is reasonable cause to believe that the Alabama Department of Corrections (“ADOC”) has violated and is continuing to violate the Eighth Amendment rights of prisoners housed in men’s prisons by failing to protect them from prisoner-on-prisoner violence, prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse, and by failing to provide safe conditions, and that such violations are pursuant to a pattern or practice of resistance to the full enjoyment of rights secured by the Eighth Amendment.”
2020 Report, “There is reasonable cause to believe that the correctional officers within the Alabama Department of Corrections (“ADOC”) frequently use excessive force on prisoners housed throughout Alabama’s prisons for men. Such violations are pursuant to a pattern or practice of resistance to the full enjoyment of rights secured by the Eighth Amendment.”
2021 Amended Lawsuit Complaint, “The State has failed or refused to correct the unconstitutional conditions in Alabama’s Prisons for Men identified by the United States in its April 2019 and July 2020 findings reports … prisoners at Alabama’s Prisons for Men have continued daily to endure a substantial risk of serious harm, including death, physical violence, and sexual abuse at the hands of other prisoners … The United States has determined that constitutional compliance cannot be secured by voluntary means. Judicial action is, therefore, necessary to remedy the violations of law identified in the United States’ findings reports and to vindicate the rights of the individuals incarcerated in Alabama’s Prisons for Men.”
Books & Articles
Blackmon, Douglas: Slavery by Another Name, “The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War”
Brown, Melissa: American horror story, “The prison voices you don't hear from have the most to tell us”
Shelburne, Beth: Alabama’s ‘Vending Machine Justice’ Victims Are Living ‘Like Livestock’, “COVID-19 has led many Americans to rethink prison. But a habitual offender law has condemned hundreds of people who never physically hurt anyone to grow old and die behind bars.”
Stevenson, Bryan: Just Mercy, “A Story of Justice and Redemption”
Yackle, Larry: Reform and Regret, “The Story of Federal Judicial Involvement in the Alabama Prison System”
Research Reports
Alabama Appleseed: Condemned, “Hundreds of men are sentenced to die in prison for crimes with no physical injury. They haven’t given up on life.”
Equal Justice Initiative: Lynching in America, “Confronting the legacy of racial terror”
Prison Policy Initiative: Alabama profile, “Learn more about who is incarcerated in Alabama and why.”
Vera Institute of Justice: Incarceration Trends, “How your county compares to others along five key incarceration metrics.”
State Agency Reports
Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles: 2021 Annual Report
Alabama Department of Corrections: 2021 Annual Report
Alabama Sentencing Commission: 2022 Annual Report