Blog – Alabama Appleseed

The State of Justice Blog

Thank you, Appleseed Supporters, for Fighting for a Better Alabama in 2019

By Appleseed Executive Director Carla Crowder As I wrap up a whirlwind first year as executive director of Alabama Appleseed, I could not be more excited about the work we have done and the places we are heading. This has been a banner year…

Alvin Kennard is home. Let’s create a path for others to follow.

Carla Crowder, Fair Schools, Safe Communities, News

By Carla Crowder, Appleseed Executive Director BESSEMER -- Alvin Kennard is a free man, home surrounded by family and friends after 36 years in an Alabama prison for a $50 robbery in 1983. He couldn’t stop smiling and thanking God for…

Separate and Unequal: Black homeowners of Camden endure decades in shoddy housing

News

By Phillip Ensler, Appleseed Policy Counsel CAMDEN, ALABAMA -- In 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited Wilcox County to encourage black residents to register to vote. He told them, “You are somebody.” Yet in my visits to…

Incarcerating people as cheaply as possible created Alabama’s unconstitutional prisons. Let’s not make the same mistake again

Alabama prisons, Carla Crowder, Fair Schools, Safe Communities, News

By Carla Crowder, Executive Director A few weeks ago, a search dog working for Alabama’s Department of Corrections sadly died after exposure to contraband narcotics. ADOC leadership, including Commissioner Jefferson Dunn, gathered for…

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Must Protect Consumers

Dana Sweeney, News, Other Issues

Photograph by Val Downes The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently solicited public comments related to their proposal to weaken protections for payday loan borrowers. An open letter submitted to the CFPB by Alabama Appleseed…

Passage of SB30: Ensuring Greater Access to Justice for Low-Income Alabamians

Access to Justice, Legislature 2019, Phillip Ensler

By Phillip Ensler, Appleseed Policy Counsel In 2014, a little boy drowned in an apartment swimming pool with no fence. His mother sued the owners but because of backlogs and barriers in the courts, she was denied. Alabama Appleseed…