Medical workers inside Alabama prisons who were employed by the embattled company YesCare haven’t received their last paychecks, and the Alabama Department of Corrections is predicting “protracted litigation,” over millions of taxpayer dollars at issue following the sudden termination of the billion-dollar contract. 

The hardship falling upon those prison health care workers comes despite the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) having paid YesCare a final payment of $11 million in April with a “verbal agreement” that the money would be used to pay employee payrolls. That didn’t happen, leaving workers having to make difficult financial decisions for themselves and their families. 

At Bullock Correctional Facility, nurses on all three shifts went on strike Tuesday, and although some returned to work Wednesday, one worker who did not return to the prison told Appleseed she’d remain at home until she received her pay. Most of those former YesCare workers are now employed by NaphCare, the Birmingham-based company that finalized an emergency contract with ADOC on April 30 to provide medical and mental health care in the state’s prisons. 

Healthcare workers have been on strike at Bullock County prison because of unpaid labor.

The nurse told Appleseed on Wednesday that she hasn’t received a paycheck in almost a month. 

“It’s taking everything you have in this economy to ‘stay above water’ and you miss a paycheck most of us are going to drown. As a result I have had to defer bills and incur unnecessary debt,” she said. “Gasoline is almost $5 a gallon and I have a 45 minute drive to work, and they expect us to still report to work and remain loyal to the cause.” 

The state of Alabama should pay the workers, she said, and “should be held responsible for appointing these unreliable contractors who misuse the funds and are allowed to file bankruptcy and operate under a different name.” 

In a statement from ADOC’s general counsel, Mary-Coleman Roberts, obtained by Appleseed, the department says YesCare failed to honor an agreement to pay the workers their last paychecks, and warns of possible litigation. The statement also includes a response from YesCare’s chief restructuring officer David Goldwasser. 

“As a reminder, ADOC’s last payment to YesCare was made the week of April 20th with the express verbal agreement that YesCare would use that money to make the last two payrolls on April 24th and May 8th. Obviously, that did not happen. When I asked what the ADOC’s $11 million payment was used for, Mr. Goldwasser would only say that it was used for  ‘emergency operations.’  This answer certainly does not sit well with the ADOC, and we will continue exploring all remedies available to us to assist with this payroll issue and the issue of outstanding debts to community providers. That said, we now believe this will likely result in protracted litigation and, unfortunately, there are no guarantees in litigation,” Roberts’ statement reads in part. 

The logo for the bankrupt corporation whose employees have not been paid in weeks.

NaphCare said in a statement to Appleseed that the company is taking steps to help the impacted employees. The company filed a motion on Wednesday with a Florida bankruptcy court supporting YesCare’s request to pay its former employees using money set aside as collateral in YesCare’s bankruptcy proceedings. 

“NaphCare will continue advocating to ensure our employees receive every dollar of compensation owed to them by YesCare. ADOC paid YesCare’s final invoice based on YesCare’s commitment to fulfill payroll obligations as part of the transition process. YesCare must honor that commitment, and we hope that the bankruptcy court will promptly approve YesCare’s motion to help ensure payment is made without further delay to the hundreds of healthcare workers across multiple states who are still awaiting compensation,” NaphCare’s statement reads. 

NaphCare also implemented a $1,000 signing bonus, recognized employee paid leave balances from their time at YesCare and allows employees to access up to 70 percent of their pay prior to scheduled payroll dates. 

Naphcare CEO Brad McLane added: “I believe our contract is on solid legal ground as a needed emergency contract.”

“ADOC should be commended for acting quickly, not criticized. If not for the swift action of the agency this would have been a humanitarian crisis beyond reckoning,” McLane said. 

“There’s got to be a better process”

The financial meltdown has been years in the making. One key lawmaker warned that the $1.03 billion Alabama contract seemed shaky, but the state forged ahead.

New York City-based private equity firm Perigrove 1018, LLC, led by Isaac Lefkowitz, in December 2021 bought Corizon Health Inc., once the largest prison health care company in the U.S., which was facing more than $775 million in wrongful death and medical malpractice lawsuits. 

Within months of acquiring Corizon, Lefkowitz and his ownership team used a controversial legal maneuver that’s been called the “Texas two-step” to saddle about $185 million of the company’s debt with a newly formed company, Tehum Care Services Inc., Bloomberg Law reported, and yet another newly formed company by Corizon, called YesCare, received the $1 billion contract to provide the Alabama Department of Corrections with medical service inside the state’s prisons. Tehum filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2023. 

According to Tehum’s bankruptcy settlement approximately $50 million was to be paid by YesCare and its subsidiaries, Bloomberg reported, but the company led by Lefkowitz, whom in bankruptcy court documents is listed as the directors of both Tehum and YesCare, in September 2025 began missing those payments. A total of five missed payments resulted in $5.7 million unpaid by YesCare, court records show. The victim creditor trusts, which were to be paid the money, declared default. 

“But on May 8, the businesses built from Corizon’s rescued assets—YesCare Corp. and several affiliates—fell into Chapter 11, capping off years of litigation and financial struggles. The bankruptcy raises questions about the effectiveness of the legal strategy known as the Texas Two-Step, and whether incarcerated creditors may ever get paid,” Bloomberg Law reported. 

Lefkowitz has in remarks disparaged incarcerated people whom his companies are contracted to care for, according to court records reported by Business Insider. 

“These tort claimants are criminals, right; they’re in jail?” Lefkowitz said during a deposition, Business Insider reported. “These are criminals that file fictitious claims.”

Rep. Chris England in meetings prior to ADOC entering into the $1 billion contract with YesCare warned that the company, which previously had a contract with ADOC when it was called Corizon, was on shaky grounds and would likely fail to meet the terms of the new contract. England explained to Appleseed on Wednesday that his predictions were correct and his warnings should have been heeded.  

“There’s got to be a better process where there’s more oversight, so we don’t enter into contracts with companies like YesCare again,” England said. “The Department of Corrections should not be able to enter into, negotiate contracts without some additional involvement or third party oversight to keep us from situations like this.”

Rep. Chris England has consistently scrutinized ADOC contracts and first raised concerns about YesCare’s viability in 2023.

England also expressed concern for the unpaid workers.

“They sacrificed as much as they have to care for people who are incarcerated. It should be commended and not forgotten. The state of Alabama should do whatever is necessary to make sure that they get those last two paychecks. No words to say how much we appreciate that sacrifice,” England said. “But at the same time, the state of Alabama, the Department of Corrections owes you better to not enter into deals with companies that are already insolvent, working through lawsuits all over the country, and only for us to pretend like this wasn’t foreseeable.”

On May 15, as the workers were dealing with another pay period with no pay, Goldwasser, YesCare’s Chief Restructuring Officer, sent a memo to employees across multiple states.

“To the providers, nurses, medical staff, and operations teams who have continued to show up for patients this week — I see you. The customers we serve see you. Our clinical work has not stopped, and that is because of you, doing your job under conditions no one should have to work under. You are the reason this company is worth saving, and it is the reason I am here doing this. I’m sorry you are going through this. I won’t insult you by saying anything more than that.”

His words were not persuasive to the nurse at Bullock Correctional.

“I have never experienced anything like this my entire 26 years of nursing. Working hard. Showing up. Doing what you are supposed to do, then having to beg for pay you have already earned, borrow money, and trying to explain to your family why bills can’t get paid?,” she said. “It strips away dignity and this entire situation is humiliating.” 

The post Fallout from the State’s Unfortunate Contract with Prison Healthcare Provider YesCare Continues as Workers Go Unpaid and State Dollars Go Missing appeared first on Alabama Appleseed.

James Jones was hurting long before YesCare, the company contracted to provide medical care for those in Alabama prisons, diagnosed him with prostate cancer. 

After Appleseed succeeded in getting Mr. Jones, now 78, released from prison in December 2024 and his treatments began outside of prison fences, his life and health took a turn for the better. He recently moved into his very own apartment, in a HUD-subsidized senior housing complex, and now Medicare covers his healthcare expenses.

James Jones and Appleseed’s reentry team

But there are hundreds of people like him, older and sick and of no danger to the public, who remain imprisoned and unable to access quality healthcare. And their numbers increase every year. Their continued incarceration, at a time when privately-contracted prison healthcare is a struggling industry, creates a costly and uncertain situation, especially for poor states like Alabama.

What our team has found, over more than five years of working with formerly incarcerated older people, is that there are available resources in Alabama communities, especially Jefferson County, to care for many these individuals – people who pose no risk to the public, yet who are costing the state millions while receiving substandard care in prison. At Appleseed, we are creating a cost-effective and compassionate model for relieving some of the pressure on the overwhelmed prison system and its expensive medical provider. 

Appleseed Researcher Eddie Burkhalter and James Jones visit during a picnic at Railroad Park.

Given the fragile state of correctional health care and the continued danger and crowding in Alabama prisons, we believe it’s past time to scale this model. Below we offer lessons from our work and solutions to a brewing crisis that impacts more than 21,000 people in Alabama prisons.

Bankruptcy, missed payments, and missed pay checks

From the beginning of YesCare’s relationship with the State of Alabama, there were concerns about costs and viability. YesCare’s more than $1 billion contract with the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) was approved in 2023. The company was born from the demise of Texas-based Corizon Health Inc., which had provided the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) with health care services from 2012 to 2017. Numerous Alabama advocacy groups and incarcerated people sued Corizon over allegations of medical neglect, and facing a slew of lawsuits nationwide alleging the company failed to pay hospitals and insurance providers, Corizon transferred massive amounts of debt to a newly formed Tehum Care Services, which then declared bankruptcy. Critics said the move left Corizon’s creditors with no recourse. Corizon executives then created YesCare and landed the massive ADOC  contract. 

“Tehum, the bankrupt new company created in the maneuver, owes more than $82 million to over 1,000 creditors, including former patients who were injured or neglected, former employees who were hurt on the job, hospitals, doctors’ offices, cities and states,” The Marshall Project reported in 2023. “Almost all of Corizon’s assets — worth more than $170 million, according to court papers — went to YesCare, which continues to provide healthcare at prisons and jails.”

Then last month, YesCare missed a $2 million settlement payment required under the bankruptcy settlement. As reported March 5 in the Wall Street Journal, “Prison healthcare contractor YesCare didn’t make required payments under a $75 million settlement to resolve the bankruptcy of its former affiliate Tehum Care Services, opening the door again to medical-injury and creditor lawsuits.” Appleseed’s questions to ADOC regarding the YesCare contract and issues with the company’s solvency went unanswered.

YesCare failed to pay its Alabama prison workers on the scheduled payday Friday, April 10, according to statements from several  of those workers to Appleseed on Monday, April 13. Appleseed also heard from advocates who monitor Alabama’s prisons that YesCare staff went unpaid Friday and many healthcare workers for the company walked off the job at Kilby Correctional Facility on Monday morning.  

“If you are receiving this email, it is because we are aware that some payroll transactions have still not been fully processed as of this afternoon,” reads an email from YesCare Chief Human Resources Officer Dennis Wade to staff on Friday, which a health care worker for the company sent to Appleseed. “We are working with our ownership and our bank to address the situation and hope to have it resolved on Monday. We know this is a hardship and apologize for the inconvenience.” 

We learned Tuesday, April 14, that YesCare staff were finally paid, though several days late. 

Workers have communicated their frustration in multiple ways. “We most definitely didn’t receive pay on Friday and it’s almost the close of business and I do not see any pending transactions,” one YesCare worker told Appleseed. “YesCare has failed to pay in a timely manner for the last 2 pay periods…but it has never been this late.” 

Against this backdrop, the expensive medical needs of incarcerated Alabamians are only increasing with the state keeping so many older people locked up long after they age out of criminality.  

The Senseless Costs of an Aging Prison Population 

The percentage of incarcerated people who are older has continued to increase in Alabama prisons for decades. As of January 2026 the percentage of people under ADOC’s jurisdiction (This includes those imprisoned and those serving sentences in community corrections settings. ADOC public reporting doesn’t break down the numbers to show just those who are serving in prison.) who were 51 years old or older sat at 28.5 percent, or 8,086 people. That’s higher than the national average of 24 percent aged 51 or older, according to research published in the National Library of Medicine. In 2000, those older people made up just 7 percent of Alabama’s prison population. 

As Alabama prisons continue to house a higher percentage of older people, the rising cost of providing physical and mental health places a greater and greater burden on the state’s General Fund. Studies show that the cost of caring for those older incarcerated people is between three and five times the cost of keeping younger people incarcerated. 

In 2000, Alabama spent an average of $24.47 to incarcerate someone for a day, or about $9,300 per year. That number stayed relatively the same between 1995 and 2003, but the dramatic rise of

older individuals in prison sent costs soaring. According to ADOC Commissioner John Hamm, speaking in a 2024 budget hearing, he predicted the daily cost for fiscal year 2024 to hit $87 a day, a 255 percent increase from 2000. (ADOC’s annual reports used to include data on the cost of incarcerating people, but the department stopped publishing that data for the 2022 annual report.) But we know it continues to escalate as the FY27 General Fund budget allocation for ADOC was $868 million.

An aging prison population requires longer, more attentive care. As such, ADOC’s healthcare system will continue to be strained, requiring excessive reliance on off-site infirmary admissions. Along with the aging population, which brings its own increased medical costs, there are others who have serious health conditions or terminal illnesses. Medical costs to address the health care needs for people incarcerated continue to increase, going from $120 million in 2012 to $235 million in 2023.

A group of Appleseed’s clients, all of whom served decades in life sentences without parole in Alabama prisons, enjoy a day in a Birmingham, Ala., park following a birthday celebration for John Coleman. From left are Larry Garrett, Ronald McKeithen, Robert Cheeks, Lee Davis, John Coleman, and Willie Ingram. Photo by Bernard Troncale

It becomes even harder to justify spending hundreds of millions to care for aging men and women in prisons when one recognizes the long-settled fact that as people age they commit less crime. Hundreds of incarcerated Alabamians eke out an existence behind bars barely able to walk, much less to commit crimes.  

Those aged 60 and older account for only three to four percent of violent crime nationally, and older people return to prison at lower rates as well. 

“Older offenders were substantially less likely than younger offenders to recidivate following release. Over an eight-year follow-up period, 13.4 percent of offenders age 65 or older at the time of release were rearrested compared to 67.6 percent of offenders younger than age 21 at the time of release,” according to a U.S. Sentencing Commission report. “The pattern was consistent across age groupings, and recidivism measured by rearrest, reconviction, and reincarceration declined as age increased.”

In short, people over 60 were about five times less likely to be rearrested than people under 21. 

Our roadmap for care after long-term incarceration and delayed diagnoses

James Jones was 77 when Appleseed won his freedom from a life without parole sentence, and on December 18, 2024, he walked out of the St. Clair Correctional Facility. Even prison staff celebrated his release as the jovial gentleman known as “Honkytonk” ambled out of the long-troubled prison. Appleseed’s reentry team was already well underway on the plan to help him get the medical care he badly needed. 

One of the first people in the state to be sentenced to a mandatory sentence of life without parole under the Habitual Felony Offender Act in 1981, Mr. Jones spent 43 years in prison following a robbery at a North Birmingham shoe store.

Mr. Jones was diagnosed with prostate cancer shortly before his release from prison, but because he wasn’t receiving care earlier on for the pain he was experiencing, his diagnosis was likely late in coming, explained Kathleen Henderson, Appleseed’s re-entry case manager. “If they had given him symptom care they could have picked up on it,” Ms. Henderson said, noting that since his release and because of his cancer treatments, he’s improving. “Now Mr. Jones is living comfortably. He’s doing pretty well.” 

Our client John Coleman, who Appleseed freed from prison in 2023 after he served 34 years of a life sentence, was wheelchair-bound while in prison, but after his release, once Appleseed helped him access physical therapy and medical treatments for the pain in his back and legs, he began walking with a walker. 

Clients John Coleman and Robert Cheeks, both who spent most of their adult lives incarcerated.

“He was able to get along fine (with the proper treatment) but while he was in, he had none of that, ” Ms. Henderson said, noting that even among the Appleseed clients who were being treated for medical conditions while incarcerated, the medication they were provided was “one size fits all” and not tailored to their individual needs. There is no rehabilitation care in Alabama prisons either, she said. 

Another freed Appleseed client had HIV while incarcerated but records don’t show he was ever treated while in prison. He’s receiving that treatment now, and it was only recently discovered that he also has stomach cancer. “How long had that been going on, for it to get to this point?” Ms. Henderson said of the cancer diagnosis. “Their problems are not met in prison like they should be,” Ms. Henderson said. 

John Coleman was sentenced to die in prison and is released after serving 34 years. He recently celebrated his 92nd birthday.

Ingrid Patrick, Appleseed’s social worker who, along with Ms. Henderson, ensures Appleseed’s re-entry clients thrive outside of prison, said she begins the process with new clients by securing housing, either at a transition home like Birmingham’s Shepherd’s Fold or with the client’s family, and then begins the work of getting them medical care and all the documents they need to restart their lives.

Our team has learned that this process can take months, and many clients need extra resources to survive as they wait out the federal bureaucratic delays. “You would be surprised at how many of our guys didn’t have a social security card or birth certificate,” Mrs. Patrick said. But once the necessary documents are secured and federal services start flowing, people can thrive. 

Appleseed’s team stresses the importance of blood work and diabetes testing once people are released, because too often clients had no idea they were diabetic while incarcerated. “We had one instance where he knew he was diabetic, but the line (in prison) for getting his medication was just so long, and he has extreme back pain so he can’t stand in that long line, and so he just stopped getting his medication,” Ms. Patrick said. “We got him released and in to see his doctor, and he is doing so much better.” 

“A lot of times they aren’t getting the proper care, or the full care, they should be receiving,” Ms. Patrick said. “A lot of the healthcare they get out here has prolonged their lifespan for sure.” 

Currently, 16 Appleseed reentry clients are over age 65. Thirteen of these individuals have chronic health problems, such as prostate cancer, kidney disease, high blood pressure or pain related to aging and require assistance from our team for doctors appointments, prescription access and more. 

Appleseed’s capable reentry team – a total of three people – have connected dozens of clients to community resources. The key is a case manager, social worker, and peer mentor, Ronald McKeithen, who served 37 years himself, and is now 64 years old, so he understands what these individuals need on many levels. What our clients need most is help with things like getting new identification cards and navigating Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits: tasks that anyone trained in case management can easily help with. “There are people coming out who have health problems who are older, who could live on their own. It absolutely can be done. There are so so so many folks out there that work with health care,” Ms. Henderson said. “There are so many health resources out here.” 

On a recent visit to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens for the garden’s cherry blossom festival, three of Appleseed’s clients and Ms. Patrick spent time together. Robert Cheeks, now 83, was pushed in his wheelchair and talked about his memories, but the memories he shared weren’t of life in the free world. He’d served 37 years of a life without the possibility of parole sentence before Appleseed freed him in 2022. 

Robert Cheeks shortly after his release from prison in 2022. He remains a vibrant member of our community. Photo by Bernard Troncale

“He’d been in prison for 30-plus years. Those are the memories he has,” Ms. Patrick  said. “So why should he not be allowed to come out and make new memories for himself?”

There are laws to help fix this, but obstacles remain

States around the country are grappling with this issue. Various tools and laws are available, often known as compassionate release. Alabama has both a medical furlough and a medical parole law in its state statutes. 

The medical furlough statute provides eligibility to incarcerated individuals age 55 or older “who suffer[s] from a chronic life-threatening infirmity, life-threatening illness, or chronic debilitating disease related to aging, who poses a low risk to the community, and who does not constitute a danger to himself or herself or society.” People who are permanently incapacitated or terminally ill are also eligible. Terminally ill is described as having “an incurable condition caused by illness or disease which would, with reasonable medical judgment, produce death within 12 months.”

Alabama prison death data strongly suggest that the furlough statute is being underutilized. Currently, 16 people are in the medical furlough program, which is a little higher than the typical 13 to 15, posted in ADOC statistical reports over the last three years. But Alabama has one of the highest prison mortality rates in the United States, thus the vast majority of people with terminal illnesses or chronic life-threatening infirmities are dying in prison, rather than be released by furlough. A more robust furlough program or additional compassionate release mechanisms would allow more people to die with dignity, surrounded by family rather than in a cold prison infirmary. Plus, it would relieve some of the pressure on prison healthcare providers and reduce costs for the state.

Of the record high 327 deaths inside Alabama prisons in 2023,  ADOC classified the cause of death as natural for 153 people, which accounts for 46.7 percent of them. Appleseed is working to learn more about in custody deaths from 2014-2024, and 2023 is the first year for which we have a complete picture of causes and manner of deaths. 

Already our findings strongly suggest that people are dying of treatable conditions, calling into question the quality of prison health care. One in six “natural” deaths in Alabama prisons in 2023 occurred among incarcerated people aged 50 or younger. In more than one-fifth of those deaths (22 percent), sepsis, a life-threatening but often treatable condition, was listed as a cause or contributing factor. By comparison, sepsis was involved in only about one in 25 natural deaths across all ages that year. 

The average age for natural deaths inside Alabama prisons that year was 59, and in facilities like Ventress and Bibb, the average age of natural death drops into the 40s, ADOC’s own reporting to the federal government collected and reviewed by Appleseed shows. 

Among those younger natural deaths at Ventress prison was Ryan S. Allen, who died at the prison on April 3, 2023 at the age of 27 and whose cause of death listed in ADOC’s data submitted to the federal government states “Cause of death: staphylococcus aureus sepsis.”  Staph infections are treatable, and sepsis can mean delayed or failed intervention. 

James Lynn Johnson, 36, died at Elmore Correctional Facility on July 11, 2023, from “complications of diabetes”, a disease that required constant monitoring and care, and 30-year-old Chad Markum died from “Sepsis due to…pneumonia” on April 1, 2023, at Ventress Correctional Facility. 

Smoothing the transition with federal resources

A major obstacle to relieving some of this pressure by moving older and infirm people into the community for care is the inability to start or restart a person’s Medicare or Medicaid benefits until after they are released from prison. ADOC and YesCare are keenly aware of this issue.

In August of 2024, Ms. Henderson at Appleseed was contacted by a YesCare worker regarding a case involving a man named Jamaal Mabry. Mr. Mabry was stabbed in the back while serving his sentence, leaving him quadriplegic with only minimal use of his left arm. By the time the YesCare worker contacted Ms. Henderson she had applied 3 times for Medicaid on behalf of Mr. Mabry and was denied each time due to his incarcerated status. However, because he lacked Medicaid coverage, which he would be eligible for due to his disability, the YesCare worker was unable to place him in a nursing home or care facility. For months, Appleseed attempted to find a placement and figure out a way around these obstacles.

Eventually, Appleseed attorney Scott Fuqua was able to secure Mr. Mabry a placement at a nursing home only after taking extraordinary measures to ensure the cost of caring for his first month’s stay would be paid for. Mr. Mabry was released from prison on April 4, 2026. 

“They wouldn’t take him without assurance that that was going to be paid for, one way or the other,” Ms. Henderson said. Because she filed for his benefits as soon as he was released, once the application is processed those benefits will start retroactively and cover costs incurred from the day the application was sent, but providing that payment guarantee to places like nursing homes is a massive obstacle to helping incarcerated people reenter their communities. 

“Just trying to get someone into a nursing home is hard enough, but trying to get them in while they’re incarcerated is almost impossible,” Ms. Henderson said. 

Despite this difficult reality, there exists a solution that other states are using. Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration waivers can be used in many different ways, including for those who are incarcerated specifically by establishing or reestablishing Medicaid coverage prior to someone’s release from incarceration in order to streamline the reentry process.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has begun emphasizing the use of the 1115 waiver in reentry, stating, “Section 5032(b) of the SUPPORT Act makes clear that the purpose of this demonstration opportunity is ‘to improve care transitions for certain individuals who are soon-to-be former inmates of a public institution and who are otherwise eligible to receive medical assistance under title XIX.’” 

To date, 20 states have been approved to use the 1115 waiver for reentry and five other states have applied. Of the 5 southern states that have applied– Arkansas, Louisiana, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky– Kentucky, West Virginia, and North Carolina approved so far. The program allows incarcerated people to enroll in Medicaid 90 days before their release. In addition to Medicaid enrollment and reinstatement, the waiver can provide increased access to case management prior to release, as it does in Kentucky, for example. This broadens its usefulness, as use of the waiver can serve even those aging who aren’t headed to a nursing home post release, who simply need better access to resources and care prior to release so they can be more on their way to getting jobs and moving forward. In order to make this happen, Alabama’s State Medicaid Director would need to write and submit a proposal for an 1115 waiver program, outlining what its goals would be. If approved, State Medicaid and the Department of Corrections would need to work closely to ensure the program is being utilized in an effective and efficient way. Other state entities that might benefit from the program include the Department of Mental Health, the Nursing Home Association, Senior Services, and the Department of Rehabilitation Services.

On the other end of the spectrum, several of Appleseed’s older clients are employed well into their 60s and after decades in prison. Milton Hambright, 63, landed a job as a forklift operator at a Cullman manufacturing company less than two weeks after being released on parole. He has a side job as the handyman at the Cullman Reentry Addiction Assistance, his transitional housing placement. 

Larry Garrett

Larry Garrett, 71, is employed by Western Express driving tractor trailers and is constantly on the road. Both of these men spent more than three decades behind bars, yet somehow maintained their health and are determined to contribute to the economy and be self-sufficient, despite the state taking so many years of their lives. 

Their resilience and vigor prove what’s possible when sensible resentencing is combined with holistic reentry support. 

Policy Director Elaine Burdeshaw and Executive Director Carla Crowder contributed to this report.

The post Alabama Prison Healthcare Faces Spiraling Costs and Grim Uncertainty. A Smarter Way Forward is Within Our Grasp. appeared first on Alabama Appleseed.

Families of incarcerated Alabamians celebrate their role in securing an agreement for enhanced prison oversight in the Alabama Senate. From left, Sylvia Wright, Cindy Hamilton, Beth Smith, Tim Mathis, and Shantelle Quinley

Sen. Larry Stutts, R-Tuscumbia, who sponsored SB 316, the prison oversight bill, announced this development Wednesday on the Senate Floor. Stutts and Senate Pro Tem, Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, acknowledged the contributions of a small group of parents, who were present in the Gallery. These families have faithfully pursued prison reform and safer conditions across ADOC by advocating at the State House, collecting photos and videos of horrific violence, and sharing their findings through mass emails. 

“We’re exponentially further along because of you,” Sen. Gudger told the families.

The agreement hammered out this week draws on elements of SB 316 by creating a process where certain employees at the Office of the Examiners of Public Accounts will visit selected prisons for inspections at any time (“golden key access”), collect and report data that’s made available to the public, and provide recommendations for improvement. 

“I feel like we’ve arrived at a really good position that is going to make a difference with the Department of Corrections in the coming years,” Sen. Stutts said. 

Appleseed’s Elaine Burdeshaw and advocates for prison oversight celebrate at the Alabama Statehouse.

Appleseed initially developed a prison oversight bill in 2024, which helped lead to the passage of SB 322, creating ADOC’s constituent services unit. Appleseed revisited the oversight bill this year and in collaboration with impacted families has been sharing data and stories of continued violence and dysfunction with the ADOC. “We are just moms and dads, regular people who experienced the reality of this system personally and could not unhear or unsee what’s happening inside,” said Cindy Hamilton, of Tuscaloosa, one of the group’s leaders.

The Oscar-nominated documentary, The Alabama Solution, illuminated the depth of the crisis for new audiences, spurring additional advocacy through the NoMore campaign. Additional support for oversight was provided by the national organization FAMM.

Supporters of prison oversight, including Appleseed’s Policy and Advocacy Director Elaine Burdeshaw, gathered at the Alabama Statehouse for a hearing.

“The newly announced pilot program to create more outside oversight of the Department of Corrections is positive movement that we are proud of. We believe this program will help bring some sunshine to a department that has long been shrouded in darkness, creating more transparency for the legislature, public, and families,” said Elaine Burdeshaw, Appleseed’s Policy and Advocacy Director. “We are grateful to Sen. Stutts, Pro Tem Gudger, and all the state departments who came to the table to make this possible. Most of all, we are grateful to the families and currently and formerly incarcerated people who continue to inform both our work on this issue and the solutions that will address it. As Pro Tem Gudger said, we wouldn’t be where we are now without them.”

The post Alabama Appleseed Applauds Agreement for a Prison Oversight Pilot Program appeared first on Alabama Appleseed.

By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher

At the age of 14, Marvin “Trey” Taylor III found his father’s body. His pharmacist father died of an overdose, his family says. Mr. Taylor struggled for years with addictions afterward, and at the age of 32 was attacked inside Ventress Correctional Facility on Dec. 30, 2025.

Mr. Taylor was taken off of life support and died five days later inside Southeast Health hospital in Dothan, his mother, Jamie Stone, told Appleseed.

“We got there and he had bruises on his face, a cut on his eye. He was in a coma. They did a test the next day and he didn’t have any brainwaves. His brain stem was damaged,” Mrs. Stone said. He was removed from life support and died on Jan. 4, 2026. “He never woke up.”

Trey Taylor, following an assault at Ventress prison

Yet despite statements from the prison warden to both the mother and grandmother that Mr. Taylor had been assaulted, and photos taken at the hospital showing black eyes and large bruising across his face, his death certificate, obtained by the family and completed by a physician at Southeast Health in Dothan lists the cause of death as “subdural hematoma” and the manner of death as “Natural Causes.” A subdural hematoma is a type of bleeding near the brain that is most often the result of a head injury.

It was unclear on Tuesday why the death certificate lists the manner of death as “Natural Causes” rather than “Homicide.” Attempts to reach the physician whose name appears on the death certificate on Tuesday were unsuccessful, and questions to ADOC on Tuesday about the death certificate were not immediately responded to.

Mr. Taylor’s life took a hard turn when, as a young teenager, he found his father’s body, Mrs. Stone said. Her son spent the subsequent years mostly alone in his room and with few friends. He did enjoy fishing and would often go to a local skating rink on weekends, but eventually methamphetamine took hold of his life, she explained. Instead of removing him from the temptation of drugs, Alabama prisons exposed her son to new, more deadly drugs, including fentanyl, which he struggled with while incarcerated.

Mr. Taylor may be the first homicide victim this year among those incarcerated by the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC), a prison system besieged with overdoses, violence and death.

The death toll inside Alabama prisons in 2025 was nearly three times the national average. At least 202 people died inside Alabama prisons in 2025, Alabama Appleseed discovered through a records request to ADOC. Alabama’s prisoner mortality rate in 2025 was 957 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with a national average across state prisons of 330 deaths per 100,000, according to the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics.

That was a drop from the 277 deaths in Alabama prisons in 2024, following another slight decline from the record high 327 in 2023. While the decline can be considered progress, the rate of deaths across Alabama prisons dramatically exceeds the death toll in other state prison systems, and continues to be high despite multiple commissions, committees, hearings, lawsuits, and investigative reports.

On Ash Wednesday, Alabamians gathered on the Capitol Steps to remember those who died in state prison custody. Photo by Bernard Troncale

Alabama prison’s overdose mortality rate in 2023 was 20 times higher than the national average across all state prisons in 2019, the last year for which the federal government has made that data available. Illicit drugs are most often brought in and sold by Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) staff themselves, as publicized arrests and interviews with incarcerated people show, and while ADOC has made increasing efforts in recent months to catch and charge these employees, drugs and the overdose deaths persist. Just last week a woman employed with Yescare, the ADOC’s medical contractor was after a search of her home turned up significant amounts of meth, fentanyl, and other drugs.

Mrs. Stone said the prison’s warden called her on the last day of the year to tell her that he’d been attacked and was in the Dothan hospital. A bracelet on her son’s arm had the date of Dec. 30, so she assumes he was attacked that day. She has gotten little information from the prison, and Appleseed’s attempts to get information on his death from ADOC date back to Jan. 30, and as of March 10 Appleseed has not received a response.

Mrs. Stone believes her son was in debt to other incarcerated men over drugs, which are plentiful inside Alabama’s prisons and drive much of the violence and death. The last time she spoke to her son by phone was on Dec. 30, the day he was attacked. He’d asked for money, she said.

“He used to call every day saying he owed somebody money. He wanted me to put in on another guy’s account, and don’t put it on his, and I knew it was for drugs…so I wouldn’t send him anything,” Mrs. Stone said. “I assume they jumped on him because he owed money, because I’m pretty sure he did.”

Mrs. Stone said another family member about a month prior to his death sent money to pay off a previous drug debt he owed. It’s common for those serving inside Alabama prisons with drug addictions to generate debt to those selling, which often leads to violence and death, according to Appleseed’s tracking of prison deaths and interviews with impacted family members.

As for who attacked her son, Mrs. Stone said she hasn’t been told. “The only thing they told us is that they’ve got in isolation…he’s by himself and that they’re keeping him for his safety, and so that nobody can jump on him, and he can’t hurt anybody else until the investigation is complete,” Mrs. Stone said.

Patricia Blankenship, Mr. Taylor’s grandmother whom he lived with for many years prior to his incarceration, said the warden told her by phone that her son had been hit by another incarcerated man, and that she’s awaiting the results of an autopsy.

Mrs. Blankenship told Appleseed that her grandson struggled after his father’s death. She and her husband tried for years to get her grandson help with his addiction to methamphetamine, she said, and he spent time at an in-patient treatment facility for youth in Mobile, but nothing stuck.

Mr. Taylor in 2018 pleaded guilty to third-degree escape for leaving a court-ordered treatment facility and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, split to serve five of those years in ADOC with three years of probation. He had three prior felony convictions from 2013 connected to his grandmother’s credit card for credit card fraud, possession of a controlled substance and theft of property, which enhanced his sentence under Alabama’s Habitual Felony Offender Act.

Mr. Taylor was later released on probation, but in 2023 was charged with domestic violence harassment and was sentenced to one year in prison on April 30, 2025, and his probation was revoked on the previous escape charge, according to court records. He was denied parole at an Aug. 6, 2025 hearing and was set for another parole consideration in August 2028. He had an expected end of sentence date of Sept. 28, 2038.

Mrs. Blankenship explained that her grandson struggled with addiction and made mistakes as a result, but the state had a responsibility to keep him alive.

“My grandson didn’t deserve to die. He didn’t deserve to die like that. Nobody does. They’re human, and they have families. They’ve got to change to keep these men from getting beaten up and killed,” Mrs. Blankenship said. “One lieutenant told me that they don’t have enough guards because they can’t keep them.”

In 2023, Mr. Taylor even completed ADOC’s 6-month Crime Bill drug treatment class, his grandmother said, and the warden told her he was in some sort of other class at the time of his death, but with so much drugs inside Alabama’s prisons she wonders how effective those classes are.

“I don’t know what good it does, They’ve got more drugs in prison than out here in the street,” Mrs. Blankenship said. She’s heard from others that it’s often the officers who bring in and sell the drugs.

Mr. Blankenship said she prays that Alabama’s lawmakers will do something to prevent more of these deaths. “I hope they do something. I pray they will. They’ve got to do something,” Mrs. Blankenship said. “I miss him so much. It’s hard to image him gone, because it’s hard to accept.”

The post Thirty-two-year old Marvin Taylor was beaten inside Ventress prison. So why does his death certificate say he died of natural causes? appeared first on Alabama Appleseed.

Sen. Larry Stutts, R-Tuscumbia

This bill is the result of years of investigations, litigation, and escalating prison expenditures that have failed to alleviate extreme violence, dysfunction, and the highest prison death rates in the country.  It comes as families of incarcerated Alabamians have increased their advocacy and outreach to elected leaders.

Core components of SB 316:

• Increases the responsibilities and authority of the position within the Department of Examiners of Public Accounts that was created by Sen. Chambliss’s SB322 in 2024 to serve the Joint Prison Oversight Committee– naming it the Prison Oversight Coordinator.

• • Allows the Prison Oversight Coordinator to visit any DOC facility for inspections at any time (“golden key access”), collect and report data that’s made available to the public, and provide recommendations for improvement, and gives them authority to investigate complaints from incarcerated people, their families, and correctional staff. 

• Creates a Corrections Oversight Board.

• • Made of lawmakers, medical and mental health professionals, formerly incarcerated people, family members of incarcerated people, and more. Tasked with holding at least one public hearing a year and reviewing the data, inspections and recommendations provided by the Examiners employee. 

• Removes investigation authority from the Department of Correction’s Law Enforcement Services Division and places it with the State Bureau of Investigations.

• • There have been documented issues with investigations within DOC facilities. Placing that authority with the State Bureau of Investigations provides a more transparent and independent process. 

• Provides one special prosecutor to each DA’s office with a major DOC facility in their district.

All prison-related criminal cases are referred to the local DA’s office, but these offices are overwhelmed by the large numbers of cases coming in and unable to prioritize them. Providing a special prosecutor to each office with a major facility in its district will help provide the needed resources and capacity to ensure crimes happening inside DOC facilities, by officers and incarcerated people alike, are handled appropriately. 

This legislation comes seven years in a crisis first identified by the U.S. Department of Justice.

In 2019, DOJ declared Alabama’s prisons for men unconstitutional. More than 1,500 Alabamians in prison have died since then. Meanwhile, the state has spent more than $5 billion on the prison system in the last five years – more than we’ve spent on public health, mental health, and child services combined. These costly prisons remain the deadliest in America.

On Ash Wednesday, Alabamians gathered on the Capitol Steps to remember those who died in state prison custody. Photo by Bernard Troncale

• Alabama’s prison mortality rate has been far higher than any other state in the nation for at least 2 years in a row. In 2023 and 2024, Alabama’s death rate was more than 100 deaths per 100,000 people. No other state comes close. 

The crisis at DOC is acute, and past efforts to improve prison culture and conditions have yet to produce noticeable positive outcomes. 

• Increased officer pay has brought in new officers– but significant numbers of current officers have been fired due to misconduct or criminal charges. Many more have serious documented allegations of misconduct, but the culture of ADOC and bureaucratic impediments restrict the ability for them to be disciplined or removed. The staff vacancy rate remains above 50%. 
• Efforts to increase programming and positive culture, like the creation of educational incentive time credits– an effort led by Sen. Chambliss, the Chair of the Joint Prison Oversight Committee– have not been implemented because of the dysfunction. 
• Even the costly construction of new prisons, despite the benefits that do exist, will not solve the underlying culture.

While many are aware of severe problems that exist at ADOC, increased transparency is necessary to weed out the roots of the dysfunction – where exactly are the problems coming from and how have they persisted, and even increased, despite the State being on notice from federal authorities for more than 6 years. With an ongoing crisis in Alabama’s prisons, there is no indication that change can or will happen on its own, regardless of leadership’s intentions.

While passing this form of oversight legislation now would be more responsive in nature, it would eventually act as a prevention mechanism— to avoid poor conditions and lawsuits, and keep us from ever getting to this point in the first place. Read more from bill sponsor Sen. Larry Stutts here.

Appleseed encourages Alabamians to reach out to their state legislators and express support for SB 316. Tell them:

As your constituent, I hope you will consider this issue– what’s at stake for incarcerated people and their families, correctional officers, our state budgets, and public safety– and encourage you to support Sen. Stutts’ legislation when you have the opportunity.

The post SB 316, Alabama’s Prison Oversight Bill, Has Been Filed. Now Let’s Get It Passed. appeared first on Alabama Appleseed.

Stephanie Lewis stood in front of the Alabama State Capitol steps with hundreds of others on Wednesday and pleaded for the system that allowed her husband to die to change. 

“It has to change. I know his life was not in vain,” Mrs. Lewis said of her husband’s January death at the Childersburg Work Release facility in Alpine. She’s still seeking answers from the Alabama Department of Corrections, but others inside the facility have said his death involved excessive force by officers. 

At least 202 people died inside Alabama prisons in 2025, which was nearly three times the national average. That was a drop from the 277 deaths in Alabama prisons in 2024, following another slight decline from the record high 327 in 2023.

On Ash Wednesday, Alabamians gathered on the Capitol Steps to remember those who died in state prison custody.

More than 1,500 Alabamians have died in state prison custody since Alabama’s elected officials were put on notice by the federal government in 2019 that state prisons were plagued by mismanagement, corruption, understaffing, nonexistent investigations, and violence, including homicides and sexual assaults.

On Wednesday, hundreds of family members harmed by these losses and advocates calling for change met outside the state Capitol to demand action. The Oscar-nominated documentary “The Alabama Solution” tells the plight of men inside the state’s deadly prisons fighting for change from inside. The film’s impact campaign “No More” helped organize Wednesday’s gathering. 

“I’m here today to seek justice for my son, who they murdered,” Sandy Ray, from Uniontown, told those gathered on Wednesday. Her son, Steven Davis, was beaten to death by officers in 2019. “And for all of you.” 

A woman grieves at a vigil for the 1,500 lives lost in Alabama prisons

The film documented the ADOC’s response to Mr. Davis’s beating death, which involved a $250,000 settlement paid to Ms. Ray, yet the officer involved remains on the state payroll and has been promoted to lieutenant.

Terry Williams spoke to Appleseed by phone prior to Wednesday’s vigil. His 22-year-old son, Daniel Terry Williams, was likely smothered to death in November 2023, according to the state’s chief medical examiner, and there was evidence on his body that corroborate what witnesses have said was his kidnapping and torture over a period of several days inside Staton Correctional Facility. He died the day he was set to be released from prison.

“It hurts a lot, knowing what he had to go through, and I couldn’t help him,” Mr. Williams said. 

Despite witnesses who saw Daniel Williams being held against his will in a secure prison staffed with officers, and despite clear medical evidence pointing to homicide and a suspect identified, that suspect has not been charged in Mr. Williams’s death. To date, no one has been criminally charged in connection with his death, which made headlines across the country and altered Alabama lawmakers that nothing they or the Administration had done in the four years since the DOJ report was released had sufficiently addressed deadly prison violence. 

Daniel Terry Williams, 22, was likely smothered to death on November 7, 2022 inside Staton Correctional Facility.

Appleseed’s executive director, Carla Crowder, addressed the Legislature’s Joint Prison Oversight Committee in a December 2023 meeting and presented documentation of ADOC failures that contributed to the death, part of a pattern of failures that has resulted in assaults, rapes, and killings of incarcerated individuals, many of whom were sent to prison for drug treatment and rehabililation.  “The 38-year-old suspect in this kidnapping, rape and torture was involved in nine instances of sex assault, rape, and stabbing since 2017 in ADOC while incarcerated. … There is no documentation that he was placed in segregation for any of these assaults. There was no disciplinary action by ADOC,” she said.

Daniel Willaims’ father questions how prison staff would allow such a thing to happen, and said he is seeking justice that so far hasn’t been offered to his family. “Put them in a single cell for the rest of their lives. I want them to sit there and think about what they did,” Mr. Williams said. 

Kelly Ballentine with her grandson, Wayland, drove all the way from Florence to attend the vigil.

Tim Mathis lost his son to an overdose inside Elmore Correctional Facility on June 4, 2024, minutes after talking to his father by phone. Mr. Mathis, from Dothan, frequently appears before lawmakers demanding accountability and reform.

Overdose deaths, and especially those deaths known or suspected of being caused by fentanyl, have soared in the state’s prisons. The overdose mortality rate in Alabama’s prisons in 2023 of 435 per 100,000 people was 20 times the national rate across state prisons.

What his son’s autopsy report shows is that the state’s medical examiner believes Chase died of accidental “mixed Drug toxicity (fentanyl and fluorofentanyl).” Fluorofentanyl is a synthetic form of fentanyl first produced in the 1960s.

“There’s probably been someone who’s died in the system while we’ve been standing here,” Mr. Mathis said to those assembled outside the Capitol.

Dothan father, Tim Mathis, speaks about his son, Chase Mathis, who entered prison in a wheelchair and never came home. Photo by Bernard Troncale

Asked by Appleseed whether he believes some of Alabama’s decision-makers in Montgomery aren’t aware of the prison crisis, Mr. Mathis explained that he thinks it might be more complicated than that.  “Some of them just don’t know. Some of them are just ignorant to it, and then again, maybe some of them don’t want to know,” he said. 

The post Families from Florence, Dothan, Tuscaloosa, Prattville and Countless Places In Between Line the Alabama Capitol Steps Honoring the Hundreds of Lives Lost in Alabama State Prisons appeared first on Alabama Appleseed.

By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher 

MONTGOMERY, AL — Bennie Haggins sat in a waiting area before his pardon hearing was set to begin on Wednesday  in Montgomery and talked about what he hoped was to come. Only 33 living Alabamians had been on parole longer than Mr. Haggins, who was released on parole June 3, 1991, and had been under supervision with limited opportunities and movement since then.

“I’m ready to be free,” Mr. Haggins said. 

Standing in front of the three-member Pardons and Paroles Board moments later board member Darryl Littleton asked Mr. Haggins, 71, what happened the day of the robbery. The board regularly asks all those applying for a pardon to discuss the circumstances around the crime that resulted in their incarceration. 

Bennie Haggins, along with family members and supporters, celebrate his pardon following his successful hearing on October 8.

Mr. Haggins, 71, fought back tears and with a cracked voice explained that his childhood and young adult life were difficult. “I had no direction. I was on my own,” Mr. Haggins said. He apologized to his victim, referring to her by name. Mr. Littleton later noted that he remembered his victim’s name. 

Mr. Haggins’s father abandoned the family when he was very young, and his mother followed suit when he was nine. He was raised by his grandmother and was kicked out of school in the 11th grade. Struggling with addiction, he turned to petty theft in the late 1970s. In May 1983, Mr. Haggins, in a drunken state, robbed a convenience store of $29. No one was physically injured in his crime and he was caught a short time later. He pled guilty and was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole because of his previous property crimes. 

“I take full responsibility for what I did,” Mr. Haggins told the board members, and he also told them about the transformation his life took after leaving prison. 

From prison, he went to work for the Sterilite Corporation in Birmingham and soon after began volunteering with the American Red Cross, which eventually hired him onto the Emergency Disaster Services team, where he would travel to weather-impacted areas and help those most in need. He spent a decade at Red Cross before being hired at the Jimmie Hale Mission in Birmingham 2022 as an intact coordinator, helping the unhoused find respite. When the weather turns freezing he drives the mission van out into the Birmingham streets looking for those who need a warm palace for the night. 

“When’s the last day you’ve had off?,” Board Chair Hal Nash asked Mr. Haggins, who responded: “I don’t take days off.” 

Bennie Haggins working at the Downtown Jimmie Hale Mission, where he assists with intake and with ensuring unsheltered people are provided safety and shelter on freezing nights.

Perryn Carroll, executive director of the Jimmie Hale Mission, spoke on behalf of his pardon and said that Mr. Haggins has used his past as a catalyst “both to change his life and to change countless other lives.” 

“Bennie’s story is a perfect illustration of why parole is such a crucial part of our criminal justice system,” Scott Fuqua, Appleseed attorney, told board members. “And he is a shining example of what is possible when those convicted of crimes are not judged solely by their worst mistakes, but instead as a person who still possesses the human spirit and the limitless potential for positive change.” 

After deliberating Mr. Haggins’s pardon application, and the pardon and parole applications of three others at the hearing, the board voted to approve a full pardon for Mr. Haggins. As of that moment he would no longer have to report to a parole officer or pay the monthly $40 supervision fee. He’d be free to vote and to travel out-of-state, something that kept him from going on cruises with his wife and daughter. 

“Overwhelmed,” Mr. Haggins said after the vote. 

“When I look back, I destroyed my whole life, but God blessed me with the opportunity to get it back, and I took full advantage of it and tried to help as many people as I could help, and I haven’t stopped,” Mr. Haggins said. And that won’t stop now that he’s pardoned, he said. There’s much left to do. 

The post After 33 years on parole, Bennie Haggins, 71, is granted a pardon appeared first on Alabama Appleseed.

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 been dedicated to guiding communities across Alabama to a better understanding of the human rights crisis in our prisons. We do this by lifting up stories of individuals and families most harmed by this broken system, by researching and documenting evidence-based solutions and alternatives to needless incarceration, and by providing legal services that free older, rehabilitated Alabamians who then share their personal stories of hope and redemption. 

A crowded dorm in an Alabama prison

Appleseed shares our work widely across the state, connecting with faith groups, civic organizations, students, elected officials and everyday Alabamians who learn about this crisis and want to get involved. We have developed resources for advocates geared toward educating everyday Alabamians and empowering them to create change. 

In the six years since we embarked on these efforts there has been some progress. And for that we are grateful. But given the depth of the dysfunction within state prisons, the need for major systemic reform remains. As laid out below, elected officials vowed to address these brutal conditions back in 2019. Money has poured into the prison system, yet institutional corruption and senseless violence remain rampant. The documentary, The Alabama Solution, painfully exposes these wrenching conditions to a broader audience, demanding a bold response from our state.

Below is a list of research and resources for advocates across Alabama who wish to learn more about this pressing issue, get up to speed on the responses of our elected officials, and use that knowledge to get involved in crucial reform efforts, including holding these leaders accountable.

The Problem: “The combination of ADOC’s overcrowding and understaffing results in prisons that are inadequately supervised, with inappropriate and unsafe housing designations, creating an environment rife with violence, extortion, drugs, and weapons.” United States Department of Justice

The U.S. Department of Justice’s report in 2019 detailed how Alabama’s prisons for men were violating constitutional rights of the incarcerated by failing to protect them from prisoner-on-prisoner violence and sexual abuse. The DOJ’s subsequent follow-up report in 2020 noted systemic problems of unreported or underreported excessive use of force incidents, a failure to properly investigate these abuses and attempts by correctional officers and their supervisors to cover up these violations. 

Appleseed’s summary of the DOJ report highlights the inability of the Alabama Department of Corrections to protect incarcerated men from sexual and physical violence and the DOJ’s finding that Alabama prisons had a homicide rate eight times the national average at the time. Appleseed’s summary also makes clear that the DOJ’s report states new prisons alone won’t solve the crisis. 

The beating death of Steven Davis in October 2019 at Donaldson prison underscored the ADOC’s inability to control excessive force by correctional officers, even after being on notice of the federal investigation.

Sandy Ray, whose story is featured in “The Alabama Solution,” shows members of the Criminal Justice Study Group photos of her son Steven Davis as a vibrant young man, then after being beaten by prison officers.

The DOJ filed the federal government’s lawsuit against the State of Alabama and the Alabama Department of Corrections in December 2020 and filed an amended complaint in May 2021. 

Irrefutable documentation of pervasive violence, illegal drugs, and deaths in Alabama’s largest law enforcement agency

This crisis has resulted in a shameful and embarrassing national spotlight on the state. The New York Times called Alabama’s prisons “gruesome.”   In a Fox News report, then-Sen Cam Ward called the findings, “deeply humiliating,” and “disgusting.” Politico called the situation a “humanitarian crisis,” in an article quoting Adam Gelb, president and CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice: “It’s a state that has chased itself around in circles for the past two decades, and there have been some modest improvements, but the system remains terribly overcrowded and filled with people who in many cases should never have come through the front doors.”

St. Clair Correctional Facility

Locally, the Montgomery Advertiser’s reporting includes the story of the beating death of Steven Davis at the hands of correctional officers at Donaldson Correctional Facility. Seven months after the DOJ’s 2019 report the newspaper’s reporting found that “prison officials have withheld food from men, micromanaging minor disciplinary infractions while violence and unexpected deaths continue unabated, including nine which occurred during the reporting of this story in September and October.” The 2019 Advertiser article “American horror story’: The prison voices you don’t hear from have the most to tell us” detailed conversations with incarcerated people who tell of chaos, violence and corruption. 

Unfortunately, the situation got worse. Prison Legal News reported more than one death a week in 2022, and bizarre situations such as the videotaped beating of prisoner Jimmy Norman on the rooftop of the Elmore Chapel by a guard. 

In-depth reporting by WBHM’s Deliberate Indifference podcast details how Alabama’s prisons became the deadliest in the country, looks closely at understaffing and overcrowding and through the voices of the incarcerated, correctional officers and others, sheds more light on a crisis that was decades in the making. 

Appleseed in 2023 began publishing the “Cruel and Unusual” series of reports that focused 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, including Ronnie Peoples, a cancer patient who at the time had served more than two decades of a life without the possibility of parole sentence for crimes in which no one was physically harmed. Appleseed’s subsequent research followed Mr. Peoples as he fought to get adequate cancer treatment while still incarcerated. 

The prison crisis has captured headlines across the country, portraying Alabama in a problematic light.

Appleseed also spoke to the family of Christopher Mount, who was killed on Mother’s Day 2023 inside a segregation cell with another man in Easterling Correctional Facility. Mr. Mount’s daughter, then-17-year-old MaKayla Mount, in December 2023 told the story of her father’s death and impact on her life to members of the Legislative Joint Prison Oversight Committee. She carried the urn with his ashes into the Statehouse.

MaKayla Mount holds an urn containing her father Christopher Mount’s ashes at the Prison Oversight Committee’s hearing.

Also in the “Cruel and Unusual” series is the plight of Leon Hotchkiss, who is serving a 40-year sentence for growing marijuana. Mr. Hotchkiss, 70, with myriad health problems, has been assigned to the minimum-security Loxley Work Release Center for years and has held multiple jobs in the community. Even so, he was denied parole in February 2023. 

Appleseed in April 2023 noted the fourth anniversary of the DOJ’s 2019 report on Alabama’s prisons, which found that between the report’s release and the anniversary date, 698 people died in state prisons. Appleseed’s research also noted that the month that DOJ’s report was published in 2019, Alabama prisons were at 168 percent capacity, and at the time of Appleseed’s publication, prisons remained at 168 percent capacity. 

Daniel Terry Williams, 22, was likely smothered to death on November 7, 2022 inside Staton Correctional Facility.

Alabama Daily News reporting on the December 2023 public hearing of the Legislative Joint Prison Oversight Committee includes comments from impacted family members who told of deaths, assaults, torture, extortion of those family members and of the indifference of prison staff.  In AL.com’s subsequent reporting on the Committee’s July 2024 meeting the mother of Derrick Martin, killed by another incarcerated man in Elmore Correctional Facility, told members that her son discussed with her the stabbing and beatings he suffered during six years behind bars.

In 2024, Alabama prisons remained unconstitutionally dangerous places, Appleseed found, where more than 1,000 people had died inside Alabama prisons since the DOJ’s 2019 report release. The national spotlight again glared on the state with the kidnapping and torture death of 21-year-old Daniel Williams at Staton prison, days before his scheduled release. An Appleseed investigation found that the suspect in Mr. Williams’ death was involved in nine instances of sex assault, rape, and stabbing since 2017 while incarcerated in ADOC, yet he was never placed in segregation to prevent additional victimization. No criminal charges were ever filed. Numerous deaths are also the result of dangerous drugs brought in by prison staff.

Violence by ADOC officers has remained pervasive. The Alabama Reflector in May 2025 published the first of the four-part series “Blood Money” that details 124 lawsuits that ADOC settled between 2020 and 2024, 94 of which involved complaints of excessive force by officers. The cost of defending those lawsuits pushed ADOC’s legal spending over $57 million since 2020. 

The State of Alabama’s Responses

Gov. Kay Ivey in 2019 announced the formation of the Governor’s Study Group on Criminal Justice Policy that was to “receive and analyze accurate data, as well as evidence of best practices, ultimately helping to further address the challenges facing Alabama’s prison system.” While the study group’s recommendations, released in January 2020, did include suggestions on spending and ways to reduce recidivism, the group declined to take up more substantive sentencing reform measures. Former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Champ Lyons, who chaired the Study Group, issued this warning five years ago: “The time for action is now. We dare not abide by a status quo that risks the potential for costly and disruptive intervention by federal authorities.”

The Governor’s Study Group on Criminal Justice Policy. Photo courtesy of the Associated Press.

Ivey in May 2021 signed several criminal justice reform bills into law, but only one bill would have a minimal impact on prison populations by reducing prison sentences by up to one year for incarcerated people who complete academic and vocational programs. Instead of making a serious effort to reduce the prison population, the Governor’s Office forged ahead with a massive, costly prison construction plan, insisting “this Alabama problem has an Alabama solution.” 

Alabama’s new 4,000-bed prison is under construction in Elmore County. While the project was initially projected to cost $623 million, the cost ballooned to $1.28 billion. Lawmakers told Alabama Daily News that the state has secured 60% of the cost of a second 4,000-bed prison, to be built in Escambia County. Neither of the new prisons is expected to ease overcrowding, however, as the legislation authorizing prison construction requires the closing of several existing prisons, and acknowledges the intent of the law is to “replace existing prison facility capacity.” 

The state is spending billions on incarceration, yet the money hasn’t made a dent in the violence and death inside prisons. An Appleseed analysis found that state prison expenses over a five fiscal-year period, from 2022-2026, will reach $5 billion. That monumental figure includes the annual General Fund allocations to the Alabama Department of Corrections, plus the costs of new prison construction including debt service, but does not include the at least $57 million paid out of the state’s General Liability Trust Fund in recent years on ADOC legal expenses, primarily private contract attorneys to defend officers accused of misconduct and to defend the ADOC in federal class action litigation over unconstitutional prison conditions.

The Alabama Joint Prison Oversight Committee was formed by legislation in 2021 and in meetings held since, those members have heard from directly impacted families members and from ADOC officials. One product of those discussions was the formation of ADOC’s Constituent Services unit, tasked with answering family members’ questions and concerns about the health and safety of incarcerated loved ones. Oversight Committee Chair Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, sponsored legislation that allowed ADOC to hire an additional 15 people to staff that unit. 

In an effort to increase hiring and bolster retention efforts, Alabama in 2023 increased correctional officer pay, so that officer trainees can earn between $52,000 and $58,000, with a 27% pay hike after 18 months. One year later, ADOC officials told lawmakers that the department wouldn’t meet a judge’s order to hire an additional 2,000 officers by mid-2025. In 2024, ADOC announced a partnership with the Alabama Community College System that would see the system offer a free career prep program for people interested in working for ADOC. Enrollees in the program can earn up to nine tuition-free college credit hours. 

Overall, even with the knowledge that the prisons are deadly and unconstitutional, Alabama lawmakers have passed bills that lengthen sentences, reduce parole and good time, and increase the prison population. The Alabama Sentencing Commission released research in September, 2025 showing that prisons “could see inmate populations rise by nearly a third by 2030 due to new punitive laws passed by the Legislature. The Commission, working with Applied Research Services, a research firm that studies criminal justice, estimated the population in custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections could grow from 21,753 to between 24,000 and 28,000 inmates, depending on the number of people that the ADOC admits each month on average.”

Appleseed’s efforts: Justice for people, justice for Alabama

Since 2019, Appleseed has been working with stakeholders across Alabama to raise awareness about this crisis, develop evidence-based solutions, and garner bi-partisan support for meaningful reform. We’ve given dozens of presentations, testified before the Legislature, produced reports and policy briefs, and our team member Ronald McKeithen holds a seat on the Statewide Reentry Commission tasked with reducing recidivism. We will never stop beating the drum that to move beyond this crisis the state must develop alternatives to incarceration so that fewer people will ever enter the prison system, while also identifying (and freeing) older people who have paid their debt, aged out of criminality and whose permanent incarceration wastes resources.

That’s why Appleseed is also committed to direct legal representation and reentry services, focusing on older prisoners serving extreme sentences, who will likely die in prison without legal assistance. Our post-conviction and parole work has freed more than 30 people who have served more than 800 years combined in these prisons, people such as James Jones, 78, who served 43 years before we won his freedom. 

James Jones and Appleseed’s reentry team

Among our policy victories:

Grace Period Bill

In 2022, Appleseed advocated for the Grace Period Bill, which passed in its first session. The Grace Period Bill made it so individuals leaving incarceration have about 6 months before they have to begin paying back any of their legal financial obligations. This allows them time to obtain employment and begin getting back on their feet before they’re required to pay money they don’t often have on hand. 

Constituent Services Unit Bill

In 2024, Appleseed helped move SB322, a bill that, among other things, created the Constituent Services Unit at the Alabama Department of Corrections. This unit is tasked with responding to the concerns of family members, loved ones, and anyone else who has concern for an incarcerated person. The bill mandated an online form be publicly available on ADOC’s website, which is now up and running, and that there be a phone number associated with the unit. This bill was passed in large part due to the advocacy of families of incarcerated Alabamians. 

Second Chance efforts and successful legal work

In 2019, a judge reached out to Appleseed about a case where a man had been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for crimes with no physical injury to a person. He had served over three decades for a $50 robbery at a Bessemer bakery. Appleseed represented this man, Alvin Kennard, and he was resentenced to time served and released. Since then Appleseed has discovered there are hundreds of older incarcerated people serving life without parole sentences under the state’s Habitual Felony Offender Act for crimes with no physical injury to a person. 

In the years since 2019 Appleseed has won the release of 23 people originally sentenced to die in prison, and nearly a dozen more freed through parole. Most are over the age of 60 and all of them served multiple decades in prison. Many of their stories are documented on Appleseed’s Second Chance Alabama website. Men once condemned to die for crimes with no physical injury– often when they were young or dealing with substance use disorders– are now living lives free with their families and friends, working as buffers for Town and Country Ford or drivers for Western Express Trucking, volunteering with church ministries, playing in dominoes tournaments and walking their dogs. We’ve developed a comprehensive reentry program staffed by reentry professionals to ensure they succeed. 

A group of Appleseed’s successful second chance clients, all freed from life without parole sentences

While providing the direct legal representation required to continue obtaining freedom for these individuals who remain incarcerated, Appleseed has also worked at the legislative level to create a state-level change that would allow these individuals and their cases to be reviewed systematically by judges across the state. While the Second Chance Bill has yet to pass, the bill made it to the final step in the legislative process two out of three years, and has garnered broad, bipartisan support from former state Supreme Court justices, prison ministries, a former U.S. Congressman, and Gov. Kay Ivey herself. 

Real Solutions are within reach, but we must move past slogans and political posturing

Appleseed’s 2020 “In Trouble” report surveyed 1,011 justice- involved Alabamians about their experiences in pre-trial diversion programming and drug court. We found that Alabama’s tangle of overlapping, unaccountable, and expensive diversion programs are not equally available to people who most need them. And structural obstacles force participants to make unconscionable choices in order to succeed, including committing new crimes. Appleseed recommends fully funding diversion programs and alternatives to incarceration, rather than relying on program participants to foot the bills. We assisted the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office in the development of Reset, a program that does just that.  

Alabama’s reliance on life imprisonment for a wide range of offenses has resulted in soaring numbers of older, incarcerated people trapped in prison until death. Appleseed’s 2022 report “Unsustainable” details Alabama’s rapidly-aging prison population and rising cost to the state to care for the more than 7000 incarcerated people over age 50. Appleseed recommends passage of a “second look” bill that would provide a mechanism for judges to review the sentences of people serving life and life without parole under Alabama’s Habitual Felony Offender Act, who have already served decades and have demonstrated rehabilitation. Expanding medical furlough laws to work as intended can also immediately alleviate systemic strain while recognizing the humanity of the individuals in Alabama’s prisons. 

In 2025 Appleseed published the “Positive Programs” report that gives examples of real-world prison programs, many led by incarcerated people, in other states that are reducing recidivism and instances of violence and fostering more humane conditions of confinement. Appleseed recommends that Alabama lawmakers, ADOC officials and other stakeholders should reach out to those out-of-state leaders to learn more about these programs, that ADOC should recognize the most successful programs are led by incarcerated people themselves and ADOC should increase its collaborations with universities and other programming partners.

You can learn more about these and other related issues by reading these and other Appleseed’s reports.

What YOU can do

Show up! The Joint Legislative Prison Oversight Committee has scheduled three meetings for 2026:

• January 28
• April 22
• July 22, which will be the annual public hearing during which individual members of the public may address the board.

The presence of everyday Alabamians, families and friends of incarcerated people, faith leaders, and advocates at these meetings has led to real, systemic change and has created a renewed focus on the crisis in Alabama’s prisons. We encourage you to attend! If you can’t, the meeting can be watched live or later on The Alabama Channel. Continued attendance by concerned Alabama’s is critical to ensuring legislators know their constituents are watching. Already, the committee has taken noticed of increased attention from the public. The October committee meeting was packed and a larger room was required to hold everyone. Great job advocates!

Find out who your state legislators are and get to know them! It’s important to not only know who they are, but to build a relationship with them so you can reach out to them proactively, rather than only in a reactionary way. They represent YOU– make sure they hear from you so they can do it well! Find contact information for your state senator here, and your representative here. You do not have to be an expert on criminal justice reform. You can simply share that you are a voter who cares about the rights and treatment of incarcerated people and you want to know what they are doing to make prisons safer beyond just building more of them. You can also contact Appleseed’s Policy Director, Elaine Burdeshaw, for tips on speaking with lawmakers. She can be reached at elaine.burdeshaw@alabamaappleseed.org.

Policy Director Elaine Burdeshaw at the Alabama Statehouse with Appleseed clients

Pay attention to criminal justice legislation during the 2026 Alabama Legislative session, which starts in January. Because 2026 is an election year, lawmakers feel pressure to avoid taking risks. Leaders who support even modest prison reform can be accused of being “soft on crime,” which is unpopular in Alabama and part of what has led to the crisis documented above. While 2026  will be a tough session for creating change through legislation, even tougher than the previous six sessions, where little was accomplished, lawmakers must hear from constituents!. Sign up for Appleseed emails to learn more about the issues, the bills, and how to engage with elected officials during this important session.

Host a presentation at your church, civic group, school, or business– reach out to us and we’d be happy to join you. Appleseed can provide reports and materials to educate you and your colleagues. Also, our formerly incarcerated clients can be part of a presentation to provide vital insight on prison conditions and the urgency of reform.

Spread the word. Tell your friends, neighbors, community members about what you know. Advocacy and change often move at the speed of relationships– the more we all know, the more we can do together! Appleseed’s website contains numerous ways to learn about these issues and get involved. You can also request a presentation by Appleseed. Our policy experts, legal staff, and formerly incarcerated clients speak across the state (and sometimes in other states!) about all aspects of Alabama’s criminal justice system. Email us at admin@alabamaappleseed.org to request a presentation.

Visit the #NoMore Campaign website. The Alabama Solution campaign website contains more data, policy suggestions, and a call to action for all Alabamians to get involved. Visit NoMoreAlabama.com.

Finally, if you have a loved one who is sick or being mistreated in an Alabama prison, you should be able to get information about them. ADOC in 2025 formed the department’s Constituent Services unit staffed with employees at each major prison tasked with providing information to concerned family members and acting upon pleas from those family members and advocates for help when incarcerated people are in danger. That online form can be found here. 

The post Learn, Connect, Advocate — Appleseed’s Prison Reform Toolbox appeared first on Alabama Appleseed.

Deandre Roney died June 9, 2024, after being stabbed at Donaldson Prison.

There were 277 deaths in Alabama prisons in 2024, a slight decline from the record high 325 from the previous year, but the state’s prison deaths remain more than four times the national average. Appleseed obtained last year’s death count through a records request to the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC). 

Although the official count from ADOC puts last year’s deaths at 277, the actual number could be higher. Appleseed’s records request to ADOC last year seeking the names and dates of death for those incarcerated persons who died in 2023 produced a list that included 325 deaths, which was a record high, but subsequent records requests to the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, which collected in custody death data from ADOC for submission to the federal government, and ADOC’s own quarterly reports, included deaths that were not identified in the 325 supplied to Appleseed by ADOC. Appleseed is working to clarify the actual number of deaths in 2023. 

Alabama’s prisoner mortality rate is 1,358 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with a national average across state prisons of 330 deaths per 100,000, according to the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The large numbers of deaths last year only add to the tally of deaths since the federal government put Alabama on notice. There have been 1,322 deaths in Alabama prisons from the April 2019 release of the U.S. Department of Justice’s report detailing the horrific violence and unconstitutionally dangerous conditions in the state’s prisons through the end of last year. 

The federal government in December 2020 sued the state and the Department of Corrections alleging that the state “fails to provide adequate protection from prisoner-on-prisoner violence and prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse, fails to provide safe and sanitary conditions, and subjects prisoners to excessive force at the hands of prison staff.” The state has paid private, contract attorneys more than $20 million to defend these conditions and the trial has been pushed until April, 2026.

These deaths take a toll on families across the state, devastating parents, siblings, and others who held out hope that their incarcerated loved ones would someday be free and home with them. The following are just a few of the many deaths we’ve learned about this year:

Klifton Adam Bond (source Facebook)

The fourth person to die in 2024 was Klifton Adam Bond, 38, who was found dead in his cell at St. Clair Correctional Facility on Jan. 4, 2024. Mr. Bond was attacked on Nov. 6, 2023 at Donaldson Correctional Facility and remained in a hospital intensive care unit for 12 days, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of his mother. 

Joshua Hamer with his son Joey (photo courtesy of his family)

A more recent death was that of Joshua Hamer, a 41-year-old father who was beaten to death in November. He’d been incarcerated on a probation violation stemming from an 8-year-old theft conviction for not returning Redbox rental movies and video game disks in 2016, according to court records. 

Chase Mathis died inside Elmore Correctional Facility on June 4 in the minutes after his father last spoke to him by phone.

Chase Mathis died inside Elmore Correctional Facility on June 4, 2024, in what the autopsy shows that the state’s medical examiner believes was an accidental “mixed Drug toxicity (fentanyl and fluorofentanyl).”

“I know why he was in the prison, but he shouldn’t have died there,” Mr. Mathis’s father, Tim Mathis, told Appleseed. He places the blame for his son’s overdose death squarely on the back of ADOC for allowing drugs inside the prisons. 

Kerry Dale Presnell, 36, was beaten and killed on Nov. 14, 2024, at Elmore Correctional Facility. 

Jamal Wilson, 38, was assaulted at Elmore Correctional Facility and died on Nov. 1, 2024. ADOC said at the time that he was found unresponsive on his bed and had a head injury and abrasions on both legs. 

Deandre Roney was one of four men at Donaldson Correctional Facility who died over a three-day period in June. Mr, Roney died June 9, 2024, at UAB Hospital after being stabbed in his back and in his head. Mr. Roney and his family had begged ADOC to keep him safe from a man who’d already stabbed him once, but he was not moved to safety.

Several of these families have appeared at the Legislative Joint Prison Oversight Committee to share their stories. Lawmakers on that committee have shown increasing concern for holding state officials more accountable for Alabama’s dangerous prisons. The committee meets next on January 22 at 10:30 am in room 807 in the Alabama Statehouse. 

Appleseed is working to investigate Alabama prison deaths. If you have information to share with us about the death of a loved one in the Alabama prison systems, please contact us at admin@alabamaappleseed.org.

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By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher

Alonzo Nathaniel Williamson died after being found in respiratory distress at Limestone Correctional Facility on May 8th, just five days before his 37th birthday (photo courtesy of his family).

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) declined to follow its standard procedure of arranging a medical death investigation to ascertain the cause of his death. As a result, Mr. Williamson’s grieving family is left not knowing what exactly killed him  just five days before his 37th birthday.

That’s because 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, ADOC told Appleseed. 

“Since that time, the department has made numerous inquiries, but has been unable to find another vendor to provide autopsies for ADOC inmates who died of natural causes or suspected overdoses,” the ADOC spokeswoman wrote to Appleseed. 

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. 

Alonzo with his brother, Marcus (photo courtesy of his family).

“UAB has terminated its contract with the Alabama Department of Corrections and no longer performs autopsies for ADOC,” a statement from UAB to Appleseed reads. “The UAB Department of Pathology has been in compliance with laws governing autopsies to determine the cause of death of incarcerated individuals under the appropriate clinical standard, and a panel of medical ethicists reviewed and endorsed our protocols regarding autopsies conducted for incarcerated persons. UAB has one of the highest ranked pathology programs in the country, is accredited by the College of American Pathologists and is staffed by credentialed physicians who are certified by the American Board of Pathology.” 

In response to Appleseed’s questions about whether the department would request a state-funded autopsy for Mr. Williamson, ADOC noted that state law doesn’t mandate the department do so for suspected natural or overdose deaths.  

“All inmate deaths are investigated by the ADOC’s Law Enforcement Services Division. However, under existing state law, post-mortem examinations or autopsies are only required for deaths resulting from unlawful, suspicious or unnatural causes. (Ala. Code Section 36-18-2).  In those cases, the deceased is transported to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for an autopsy. Additionally, all deaths that occur in Jefferson County, Alabama, fall within the jurisdiction of the Jefferson County Coroner and are transported to the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office for post-mortem examinations and/or autopsies,” ADOC’s statement reads. 

“Deaths not covered under Ala. Code Section 36-18-2 receive a toxicology screen prior to being released to the inmate’s family. Although the department previously contracted with UAB hospital to conduct autopsies on suspected overdose or natural deaths; UAB terminated its long-standing agreement with the department, effective April 22, 2024.  Since that time, the department has made numerous inquiries, but has been unable to find another vendor to provide autopsies for ADOC inmates who died of natural causes or suspected overdoses,” the statement continues. 

A reduction of transparency surrounding in-custody deaths in Alabama comes as state prisons are seeing more deaths than ever. Alabama prisons in 2023 saw record high deaths for a second straight year, with 325 lives lost. This total means more than 1,000 people have died in state prison custody since 2019 when Alabama government officials were put on notice of conditions so dangerous and deadly that the state was violating the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Altogether, there were 1,045 deaths in Alabama prisons from the April 2019 release of the U.S. Department of Justice’s report detailing the horrific violence in the state’s prisons through the end of last year, according to ADOC’s statistical reports and data Appleseed gathered through records requests.

“I just want to know what happened to my son,” Carol Williamson told Appleseed. 

A grieving family’s unanswered questions

Mrs. Williamson said that the prison’s chaplain first notified her by phone of her son’s death, and said at the time that he’d been found unresponsive in his bunk and had died from a suspected overdose. Statements from other incarcerated men who reached out to her family, notations in her son’s medical records made the day he died and a statement from ADOC to Appleseed tell a different story, however. 

Alonzo and his mother, Carol Williamson (photo courtesy of the family).

Mr. Williamson’s medical records from his time incarcerated were with his body when he arrived at the funeral home. They say that at 8:30 a.m. on the day he died, an incarcerated man took Mr. Williamson by wheelchair to the prison’s infirmary, and that Mr. Williamson “got on the stretcher by himself.” 

“He was alert and oriented but short of breath and very diaphoretic,” the records state. The medical term diaphoretic means excessive sweating due to a secondary condition. 

“The inmate stated that he had been short of breath for 3 or 4 days. He appeared to be having an anxiety attack,” the record states. “…The PT lost pulse suddenly.” 

The record states that Mr. Williamson was given a shot of Narcan, a drug used to reverse an opioid overdose, in his left thigh at 8:36 a.m. and nasal Narcan four minutes later. Medical staff began CPR at 8:41 a.m. and an ambulance was called at 8:45a.m.. Several notes in those records say “no shock advised.” 

Staff continued CPR until his death, at 9:04 a.m., according to those records, which note that the ambulance was canceled at 9:05 a.m. 

ADOC in a response to Appleseed seeking confirmation of Mr. Williamson’s death also stated that he was found in the prison’s yard, not in his bunk, as the chaplain told the family.  

“On Wednesday, May 8, 2024, an inmate death was reported at Limestone Correctional Facility. Inmate Alonzo Nathaniel Williamson was discovered in respiratory distress in the yard. He was taken to the Health Care Unit where life-saving measures were administered. Unfortunately, medical staff were unable to resuscitate him, and he was pronounced deceased by the attending physician,” an Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) spokeswoman wrote to Appleseed. 

An investigator with ADOC’s Law Enforcement Services Division who’s investigating Mr. Williamson’s death told Mrs. Williamson that the chaplain likely had incomplete or inaccurate information when he called to inform her of the death. Appleseed has spoken with other families who have received similar incorrect information on loved ones’ deaths from chaplains in several different prisons. 

“He was a good kid. He loved to fish, and hang out with family. He was family-oriented,” Mrs. Williamson said of her son, whom the family calls Lonnie. 

From left: Alonzo with his brothers, Jacob, and twin brother Lorenzo (photo courtesy of his family)

Lonnie’s twin brother Lorenzo, whom the family calls Renzo, is taking his brother’s death hard, his mother said. The two were very close. When Lonnie fell out of a tree growing up,  Renzo limped for two weeks, she said. 

“He’s not good. He’s not good,” Mrs. Williamson said of Renzo.

The family made the decision that if they were going to get answers as to what killed Lonnie, they’d have to take the investigation on themselves. They paid a private pathologist $5,500 to conduct an autopsy, but it’s unclear if they’ll get those answers, because Mr. Williamson’s body was embalmed by the funeral home before the pathologist conducted the autopsy, which took place on May 15th. That pathologist told the family he believes he can still find answers for them, but the family worries that won’t be the case. 

To help the family shoulder the burden of paying for the autopsy, the family set up an online fundraiser. 

Mrs. Williamson said Mr. Williamson had been off of drugs for three years prior to his death, and that he looked like himself at a viewing held for the family, but that the medical records from his time incarcerated show he may have overdosed in 2022. Dangerous drugs are readily available in Alabama prisons, and deaths by overdose or for other drug-related reasons, including retaliation for unpaid drug debt, are common.

But there’s also reason to think Mr. Williamson may have died from medical neglect, the family explained. He was stabbed seven times by another incarcerated man at Limestone in December, and released back to the prison in January, his mother said. The stabbing punctured a lung, but even long before the stabbing Mr. Williamson has been complaining to family about trouble breathing and chest pains. His mother is unsure if he received adequate followup care following the stabbing, which only exacerbated his breathing problems. 

If it was drugs that killed him, how and why were drugs inside Limestone prison, Mrs. Williamson asked. She noted the recent arrest of Limestone’s warden, Chadwick Crabtree, who’s charged with second-degree possession of marijuana, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, manufacturing of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Crabtree is alleged to have grown psychedelic mushrooms at his home, according to court records. 

A shortage of funding and expertise

“Anytime a person in our community dies while in the custody of this government….We as a people should want that death vetted,” Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates told Appleseed. 

“You remove a post mortem exam from the equation, it opens up rampant rabbit trails in speculation,” Mr. Yates said of the families seeking answers for their deceased incarcerated loved ones. “In my experience, medical legal death investigation in Alabama is dysfunctional. It needs to be revamped.” 

Alonzo with his niece, Kinna (photo courtesy of his family).

In Jefferson County, unlike every other county in Alabama except for Mobile and Tuscaloosa counties, a board certified forensic pathologist investigates unnatural deaths, and by local law must investigate all in-custody deaths. Jefferson County prior to 1977 operated under the coroner system, which saw the election of typically untrained and uncertified lay people by the county’s voters. The legislature abolished that system in 1977 that system, replacing it with the Jefferson County Coroner/Medical Examiner’s Office, which requires the coroner/medical examiner of Jefferson County to be a board certified forensic pathologist. 

Mr. Yates explained that Jefferson County’s large population can adequately fund his office, whereas in many other smaller population counties, that’s not the case, and those coroners’ offices often work with few resources. He described one such small county that didn’t have a vehicle able to transport deceased persons. 

“The problem I see is the state of Alabama coroner law does not require that the coroner take jurisdiction to determine cause and manner of death in in-custody deaths,” Mr. Yates said. He would like to see that law changed to require coroners to take jurisdiction over all in-custody deaths. 

“There are different levels of jurisdiction, but at a minimum, you should be the one signing a report. You, as the coroner, should be the one signing the death certificate for cause and manner of death. How you go about doing your investigation, that should probably be left to the coroner, as to the extent of it,” Mr. Yates said.

That’s where funding comes into play. Some county coroners have told the Alabama Department of Corrections that in-custody deaths should be handled by ADOC’s contracted health care providers, which have state board certified doctors on staff. 

“Somebody dies in your prison, don’t contact me. I don’t need to know about it,” Mr.  Yates said those coroners have told ADOC. 

“They can make them do it,” Mr. Yates said of ADOC requiring vendor-employed doctors to handle in-custody deaths. “But they’re a contracted entity by the Department of Corrections, so if you go back to this idea of all in-custody deaths being vetted by an outside source, then I don’t think you really should have that vendor doctor in-house signing the death certificate. It’s really just common sense.” 

Some county coroners have said they’ll sign death certificates for in-custody deaths, but they decline to request post-mortem exams or have toxicology screenings done, and they may also decline to take custody of the body, and instead require the body be sent to the funeral home of the family’s choosing, Mr. Yates explained.

“Or they can take it one step more and they say, well, I’ll come to the scene and look at the body, but I’m not doing anything else, other than signing the death certificate and do a report,” Mr. Yates said. 

State law doesn’t allow a county coroner to order a post-mortem exam through the State Medical Examiners Office. To get a state-funded autopsy done, a coroner must by law get permission from the local district attorney, circuit court clerk or judge, or from the governor, Mr. Yates said. He explained that local DA’s are typically focused on handling criminal matters, not deaths in which there isn’t thought to be a crime committed, such as a suspected in-custody natural or overdose death. 

To complicate matters, state law requires that, even if a coroner gets permission to order a taxpayer-funded post-mortem exam by the state Medical Examiner’s office, the extent to which that exam is done – whether a full autopsy or simply a review of the body, or a toxicology screening – is decided upon by the forensic pathologist at the state Medical Examiners office and not the local coroner. State law also says that transporting the body to the state medical examiner’s office is the responsibility of the law enforcement agency that would have jurisdiction to investigate, if there needed to be a criminal investigation done, Mr. Yates said. 

“So where does their interest end?” Mr.  Yates said of those local law enforcement agencies.  “If there’s no obvious signs of a criminal violation, naturally they’re going to lose interest.” 

If those local county coroners decide to forgo the state-funded post-mortem exam through the state Medical Examiner’s office, they can seek such exams from pathologists at local hospitals, but that cost falls upon the local coroner’s offices. That’s a burden many such offices cannot afford, Mr.  Yates explained. 

Alonzo with his grandfather, Gary Wallace (photo courtesy of his family).

He commended ADOC for having contracted with UAB Hospital years ago to conduct those autopsies, and said that while the public might think that in-custody deaths are the responsibility of local coroners to investigate, that burden, in all but a few counties, legally falls upon ADOC to manage and pay for. 

 “And I really do think they were kind of left out to dry in this situation. They’ve got prisons in all of these rural counties all over the state,” Mr. Yates said. 

He explained that he doesn’t have an opinion about who’s right or wrong in the missing organs matter, and said that while he doesn’t blame UAB Hospital for cutting ties with ADOC, given the immense public pressure and legal cases that have resulted, his office doesn’t have the resources needed to handle all of ADOC’s post-mortem needs. 

“We need another doctor as is, just to keep up with our case loads from Jefferson County,” he said, noting that homicides in his county do not make up most of his office’s workload, which instead is busiest investigating all other suspected unnatural deaths. 

“I think we need to not look at the Department of Corrections specifically. I think there needs to be a comprehensive rewrite of the coroner law in Alabama,” he said.

Mr. Yates explained that he hates what has happened between UAB and ADOC, and what it means for the outcomes of those in-custody death investigations. He recommended ADOC make a practice of referring all in-custody deaths to local coroners for examination.

Transparency Matters

It’s critically important to the families of those who died in custody, and to the public, to understand why these deaths are occurring, and when they were preventable, Aaron Littman, assistant professor of law at UCLA School of Law, deputy director of the UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project and faculty director of the law school’s Prisoners’ Rights Clinic told Appleseed. 

“There is a national crisis of failure to report and understand deaths in custody, and the importance of that really can’t be overstated,” Mr. Littman said. “These deaths are happening out of public view, and in institutions that have total control over people’s access to information, access to medical care, institutions that are often plagued by violence, and often access to illegal substances.” 

Without those critical, substantive medical death investigations, the door is left open for all sorts of problems, Mr. Littman explained. 

“It might be the case that a death that is suspected of being of natural causes, is not. Either that’s because it is substance-related, or because it is in fact violence-related. Whether it is death that resulted from a medical process, but one that could have been easily avoided had appropriate medical care been provided in a timely fashion,” Mr. Littman said. “These are the sorts of things that we don’t know if death investigations aren’t conducted.”

There’s good reason to be concerned about less transparency when it comes to in-custody deaths in Alabama. ADOC has a history of misclassifying deaths, as the U.S. Department of Justice noted in a 2019 report. “There are numerous instances where ADOC incident reports classified deaths as due to ‘natural’ causes when, in actuality, the deaths were likely caused by prisoner -on- prisoner violence,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s findings in the report.

The death certificate for Christopher Latham, 40, who died on Oct. 10, 2023, following an assault by another incarcerated man at Ventress Correctional Facility on Oct. 4, lists the manner of death as an “Accident” despite also noting that the injury was the result of a “prison fight.” The death certificate, first obtained by ABC 33/40’s Cynthia Gould, lists the immediate cause of death as respiratory failure and the underlying cause as “Intracranial Trauma.” Mr. Latham had previously been struck in the head with a weight at Staton Correctional Facility prior to being taken to Ventress prison, where the second assault occurred, according to statements from his family and ADOC.

“In terms of drug use, to the extent that the prison system has an interest in addressing the problem of people dying of overdose, which of course it should, it’s important to understand what people are overdosing on,” Mr. Littman said. “So that requires a toxicology screen, and in my view, the failure to conduct medical examinations reflects a profound disinterest in keeping people healthy and safe.”

Alonzo Williamson (photo courtesy of his family)

There’s also a concern over who is making the decision that a particular in-custody death might be a suspected overdose or from natural causes, which in Alabama prisons now would mean no state-funded autopsy or toxicology screening. 

“Whether or not a person making that decision has some incentive to minimize the number of autopsies conducted, which they might if they work for the prison system, they’re unlikely to be qualified to make that decision,” Mr. Littman said. “If that person is an employee of the prison system, they are not a medical examiner.” 

“A well-functioning prison system considers information it receives about who is dying and how, and uses that information to adapt to change policies, to shift practices, to potentially hire more or different staff in some areas or another,” Mr. Littman said. “It responds to what it learns in order to improve things and keep people healthy and safe, and if you don’t have the information, you simply can’t do that.”

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