Entries by Carla Crowder

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A phone, a notebook, and some spreadsheets: How Appleseed’s determined researcher tracks Alabama prison deaths, comforts grieving families and ensures their suffering is documented

By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher Anniston, AL — There are days when I have to step away from the work as my phone rings with another desperate voice, a mother crying over a son who’s been killed or overdosed inside an Alabama prison, a sister pleading for help to save a brother being threatened. I’ve […]

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Learn, Connect, Advocate — Appleseed’s Prison Reform Toolbox

A resource for Alabamians to learn about the human rights crisis in Alabama state prisons, share their knowledge with others, and work for change Since 2019, when the United States Department of Justice issued a 56-page report calling out unconstitutional violence, death, and corruption across the entire Alabama prison system for men, Alabama Appleseed has […]

Celebrate Justice: Live at Woodlawn Theatre, Thursday, November 6, 2025

Plans for Appleseed’s joyous annual fundraiser are well underway. There is still time to take advantage of the October Special for tickets. Today through October 10th tickets are $100 for adults and $50 for students. This year’s celebration centers around creating community, hope, and joy through music, remembering that sustainable advocacy should be infused with […]

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August at St. Clair prison: a supervisor arrested on drug trafficking charges, reports of guns, two suspected drug overdose deaths, and now a young man with asthma has died and his family has no answers.

By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher The family of a 25-year-old man with just over a year left to serve on nonviolent property crimes believes he may have died from a severe asthma attack alone in a segregation cell at St. Clair prison, but because the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) no longer provides full autopsies for […]

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Appleseed’s latest report shows that ‘Safer prisons are within reach.’

By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher Alabama’s prison system is in crisis. Federal courts have said so. Back-to-back years of record prison deaths show it. The people who live and work inside those facilities feel it every day. Violence, understaffing, and overcrowded dorms are pushing the system past a breaking point, and while new prison construction […]