by Eddie Burkhalter, Researcher Alabama prisons in 2023 saw record high deaths for a second straight year, a grim reminder that the Alabama Department of Corrections is incapable of protecting incarcerated people from drugs, violence and death. Last year, 325 people died in Alabama prisons, the Alabama Department of Corrections confirmed for Appleseed. This total […]
By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher Just 22 days after friends of Klifton Adam Bond’s family spoke to the Legislative Joint Prison Oversight Committee about Bond’s injuries following a severe beating, Mr. Bond was found dead in his cell at St. Clair Correctional Facility. For lawmakers who listened to those pleas for help, the death of […]
Speakers ranged from a teenager whose father was brutally killed to a retired lawyer whose father tried to reform Alabama’s prisons 40 years ago. By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher For just over three minutes, 17-year-old MaKayla Mount stood before members of the Legislative Joint Prison Oversight Committee and told the story of her father’s brutal […]
By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher Alabama’s incarceration rate is again on the rise, outpacing most other states, nearly four years after the federal government sued the state over unconstitutional conditions in its dangerous, understaffed prisons. Alabama had the 12th highest rate of increase in the number of people incarcerated in state prisons between 2021 and […]
By Carla Crowder, Executive Director and Scott Fuqua, Staff Attorney Jerry Boatwright spent 34 years in an Alabama prison for a burglary conviction. He was supposed to die there. Instead, he’s home just in time to become the primary caregiver for his ailing brother, Randy. Jerry, 64, has always been a hard worker. At Holman […]
The worsening toll of Stage 4 cancer in an Alabama prison. This is a follow up to our first story on Ronnie Peoples in Appleseed’s series “Cruel and Unusual” focusing on the people harmed by Alabama’s overreliance on excessive sentences, which trap people in deadly, dysfunctional prisons long after they have paid their debt. By […]
This story is part of Appleseed’s “Cruel and Unusual” series, focusing on the people harmed by Alabama’s overreliance on excessive sentences, which trap people in deadly, dysfunctional prisons long after they have paid their debt. By Carla Crowder, Executive Director Every night after Leon Hotchkiss finishes up at the south Alabama boat dealership where he […]
“My daughter has nightmares and wakes up screaming and crying because all she sees is her dad being beaten and strangled and screaming for help.” – Christy Martin, whose daughter’s father was killed in prison. This story is part of Appleseed’s series “Cruel and Unusual” focusing on the people harmed by Alabama’s overreliance on excessive […]
As their son recovered from multiple stab wounds and fractures suffered at Bullock Correctional Facility, Brian Rigsby’s parents had their hopes up that he just might find safety through parole. Here’s what happened instead. By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher Pamela Moser sat in front of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles in late August […]
By Eddie Burkhalter, Researcher It’s been eleven days since Derrol Shaw walked the hallways of William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility carrying a semi-automatic pistol, and the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) has yet to publicly mention the gun or provide the public with assurances that whatever security failures led to the bizarre series of events […]
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