By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher Deandre Roney knew his life was in danger, so he asked officers at Donaldson Correctional Facility to move him, as did his family. A man had been chasing him with a knife for days, and had already stabbed him once, the blade breaking off inside of him, his family told […]
Chase Mathis was confined to a wheelchair when he went to prison. His mobility challenges meant he often did not have enough to eat and did not get his basic needs met. But in Alabama’s drug-infested prisons, lethal drugs are always available even when food is not. By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher Chase Mathis died […]
My name is London Breedlove and I am so excited for the opportunity I have been given to intern with Alabama Appleseed this summer! A Mississippi native, I was brought to Alabama on a tennis scholarship at the University of Montevallo. There I am a rising senior majoring in Political Science and minoring in prelaw. I […]
My name is Tayler Walton and I have the absolute privilege of working for Alabama Appleseed this summer as their legal intern. I am a rising 3L at Cumberland School of Law and I could not be more ecstatic to be working for an organization like Appleseed. I went into law school wanting to […]
Grieving family left without answers after Alabama’s scandal-plagued Department of Corrections fails to investigate the cause of incarcerated man’s death and suspends some autopsies By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher In the hours after Alonzo Nathaniel Williamson died after being found in respiratory distress at Limestone Correctional Facility on May 8th, the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) […]
By Elaine Burdeshaw, Appleseed Policy Associate This session certainly came with highs and lows; we experienced great wins and disappointing losses. At the start of the session Appleseed aimed to address the excessive sentences of individuals serving life without the possibility of parole for crimes that involved no physical injury, the lack of state funding […]
Michael Schumacher was supposed to die in prison. Now he’s a husband doing yard work, a grandpa rocking his grandson, and a valued hospital employee. By Michael “Shoe” Schumacher Live from New Jersey, April 9, 2024 –It’s hard to believe that it’s been 3 years since my release from the hotel after 36 years of […]
By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher It was five years ago today that the U.S. Department of Justice released a report detailing violations of the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment for incarcerated men in Alabama prisons, and since then more than 1,000 people have died in state prison custody. The Alabama Legislature’s Joint […]
Turning memories into art with people who have lost loved ones to violence By Leah Nelson, Research Director Alabama Appleseed spent much of 2022 and 2023 traveling the state and talking with victims of violent crime. We focused on people from communities that are disproportionately affected by violence but whose voices are not usually centered […]
By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher Alabama’s prison staffing crisis has an outsized role in the violence and record number of deaths seen across the state’s prisons, most everyone agrees. New data obtained by Appleseed shows yet another reason prison staffing remains dangerously low: the large number of terminated prison employees – 366 Department of Corrections […]
Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice
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