After a loved one’s prison death, grief and unanswered questions are a way of life for Alabama families

By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher

Death in prison is no longer rare in Alabama. But for families of incarcerated Alabamians it is still a shock when a loved one dies. At a minimum, family members deserve basic answers about what happened. Despite years of complaints, legislative hearings, and even additional Alabama Department of Corrections staff being hired, families continue to be left in the dark.

Beth Rodgers’ 46-year-old brother, Rusty Rodgers, died on September 20. Ms. Rodgers is still trying to find out why. Calls to Central Records, to Constituent Services, the warden, the chaplain and the ADOC investigator handling her brother’s death all resulted in either no returned calls or no information. 

Mr. Rodgers, 46, died at Baptist East Medical Center in Montgomery after being taken there from Kilby Correctional Facility four hours earlier, according to the hospital bracelet he had on his arm, his sister said. 

Rusty Rodgers (left) and a friend. Rusty’s Sept. 20 death during his incarceration at Kilby prison was sudden and his family is still seeking answers. He was 46.

But that’s not what the prison told Ms. Rodgers in a call the morning after his death. Speaking to Appleseed on Oct. 15, Ms. Rodgers said she still hasn’t received additional information from the ADOC about how her brother died. She was initially told he’d been in the hospital for four days, information she now knows was incorrect. 

Families often find themselves struggling to learn what happened after a loved one dies inside an Alabama prison, where officers are as few and far between as answers. Appleseed regularly hears from these family members, who reach out for help when the Alabama Department of Corrections gives few details. In hundreds of such conversions with Appleseed, the frustration, and sometimes anger, sound much the same. 

Ms. Rodgers said the hospital bracelet her brother had on, which she saw before her brother’s cremation, stated he was admitted to a local hospital at 16:33 military time on Sept. 20, the day he died, which would have been 4:33 p.m. His time of death was 8:08 p.m. that day, she said. 

Ms. Rodgers said she spoke to her brother four days before he died, and he wasn’t ill then. Other incarcerated men told her family that Mr. Rodgers had been asking for medical attention for days, but he received none. 

The only medical issue he was dealing with was a mental health diagnosis, she explained, and he had been treated for a rash shortly after he arrived at Kilby in mid-June, but within a couple of weeks the rash had healed, she said. 

Like most incarcerated Alabamians, Rusty Rodgers was beloved by his community. “He would give his shirt off of his back. He loved being in nature. He had a son, Evander, who just turned 5. He loved that baby more than anything,” his sister said.  “He was hard working, and survived more than any person should have to. He was very loved by his sisters, nieces, and nephews.” 

From the very first phone call with the chaplain ADOC began pressuring her to sign the form to release his body for a state burial, but Ms. Rodgers said she asked for time to call around to funeral homes to determine the cost of a burial. 

She called the prison back that morning to find out what happened to her brother, but was told to call ADOC’s Constituent Services division, which she did, but she received a message asking her to leave a voicemail. She called ADOC’s main line and was told to call a Ms. Simmons and given the same number for Constituent Services. Eventually, the family was told Ms. Simmons was at lunch. 

Ms. Rodgers said her sister called the number again around 1p.m. that day and said that Ms. Simmons answered the call and told her sister “You just caught me. I was fixing to walk out the door. I was leaving for the day,” and that since the other sister was not listed as Mr. Rodger’s next of kin, she couldn’t give her information about his death. 

“So I got the phone and I told her, my name is Elizabeth and I am listed as next of kin,” Ms. Rodger said. “And she said ‘I can’t verify your identity, so I can’t tell you anything. You need to call Central Records.’”

Ms. Rodgers said calls to Central Records, to Constituent Services, the warden, the chaplain and the ADOC investigator handling her brother’s death all resulted in either no returned calls or no new information. 

In a statement to Appleseed, ADOC’s spokeswoman confirmed the death and gave a different timeline than the prison gave Ms. Rodgers. 

“On Sunday, September 20, 2026, inmate Rusty Duane Rodgers was transported from Kilby Correctional Facility to an area hospital for treatment of an ongoing illness. Rodgers remained hospitalized and subsequently succumbed to his illness and was pronounced deceased by the attending physician. Following his death, the Kilby Correctional Facility chaplain notified Rodgers’s designated emergency contact in accordance with ADOC procedures,” ADOC’s statement reads. 

ADOC never informed Ms. Rodgers that her brother allegedly had an “ongoing illness.” She learned of that statement when Appleseed told her. 

Appleseed asked ADOC whether Mr. Rodgers received a full autopsy or only a toxicology screening. ADOC stopped requesting full autopsies for everyone who dies in custody in 2024, after UAB Hospital terminated its longstanding agreement with ADOC to conduct autopsies and/or toxicology screens on suspected natural and overdose deaths on April 22, 2024. 

The agreement between ADOC and UAB Hospital had the department paying $2,200 per autopsy and $100 per toxicology test, according to court documents filed in a lawsuit. That revenue may not have been enough to overcome the fallout of a recent lawsuit families filed against UAB after discovering that their incarcerated loved ones’ bodies were returned to them for interment missing internal organs. 

In response to Appleseed’s questions in April 2024 about whether the department would request a state-funded autopsy for another man who died in custody, ADOC noted that state law doesn’t mandate the department do so for suspected natural or overdose deaths. ADOC reiterated that change in the statement to Appleseed regarding Mr. Rodger’s death. 

“ADOC investigates inmate deaths and coordinates with the appropriate medical, forensic, and/or coroner authority based on the circumstances of each death. Rodgers’s death was not referred to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for an autopsy.

“Deaths not covered under Ala. Code Section 36-18-2 receive a toxicology screen prior to the body being released to the inmate’s family. The determination of an official cause of death may depend upon information from the attending physician, coroner, medical examiner, toxicology testing, or other information developed following the death. As such, the official cause of death will be documented on the death certificate.” 

Appleseed also asked about ADOC’s policy regarding notifying family of a person’s death beyond simply the notification of the death, and noted the struggle Ms. Rodgers had in her attempt to get answers. 

“ADOC Constituent Services communicated with Rodgers’s documented relative regarding his death and provided the information available to ADOC at that time. Additional information concerning the official cause of death will be reflected on the death certificate when completed,” ADOC’s statement reads.

Ms. Rodgers is left wondering how her brother died, and how a prison system allowed him to, despite other incarcerated men telling her family that he was asking for medical help for several days, only to ignore him until he was found unresponsive on his bunk. She’s awaiting the results of the death certificate and the toxicology screening, but worries those won’t end the mystery. 

“I don’t think I’ll ever get the complete answer,” Ms. Rodgers said. 

More than 1,675 Alabamians have died while in ADOC custody since 2019, the year the state was put on notice by the United States Department of Justice that state prisons were deadly and dangerous, in violation of the Constitution’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.