By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher

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

After he was beaten on Nov. 6th, Joshua Hamer was placed back into his bunk at Bibb Correctional Facility unconscious, and wasn’t found until the next day. He never regained consciousness and died 16 days later. 

Mr. Hamer, who was 41, was imprisoned 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. 

Injuries to his brain were so severe that doctors at a local hospital told the family they were unable to perform surgery on his other injuries due to the severity of his brain damage. 

Judy Hamer, his aunt whom he lived with for the three years prior to entering prison, told Appleseed the family made the difficult decision to remove him from life support after he’d been in the hospital for 17 days. He died hours later, on November 23rd.

“His face was just literally kicked in….I just lost it. I was trying to be brave and I just lost it,” Ms. Hamer said of the moment he was removed from life support. 

An investigator with the state called Ms. Hamer and said they had identified three suspects in his death and may have a fourth, Ms. Hamer said. The family has heard an officer may have also been involved in allowing the other men to leave their dorm and enter Mr. Hamer’s, but it’s not yet clear. The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) declined to answer Appleseed’s question as to whether anyone has been charged in Mr. Hamer’s death. 

“Inmate Joshua Joseph Hamer was admitted to UAB Hospital on November 6, 2024, for life-threatening injuries sustained in an inmate assault. He was pronounced deceased by an attending physician,” an ADOC spokeswoman told Appleseed. 

A good person who fell into addiction

A day prior to the beating Mr. Hamer called his aunt and asked her to send $50 so he could pay a man he owed money to. She didn’t know what he owed money for, but she suspects whomever he owed the money to may have beaten him regardless. 

“What bothers me is, what are they gonna do about it?,” asked Ms. Hamer. She wants to see justice done in her nephew’s death, and hopes the investigator was telling the truth when she told her she’d prosecute the death to the fullest. 

Ms. Hamer described her nephew as a good person who fell into drug addiction. He’d lost both parents by the time he moved in with Ms. Hamer, three years before he was sent to prison on the probation revocation. “He was a great electrician who could hook up anything and make it work,” Ms. Hamer said. He apprenticed with an electrician for a time and enjoyed working in construction, she said. 

Mr. Hamer had a 20-year-old son and two younger children.

“I have cried and cried and cried. Right now I’m mad, and when I get mad I want to do something,” Ms. Hamer said. The problem is, she’s unsure of what to do, she said. She hopes the investigator follows through with her promise to fully prosecute his killer or killers. 

“I don’t want him just walking around in there thinking, I got away with this because, what else can they do to me?,” Ms. Hamer said. 

Ms. Hamer’s fear that those who killed her nephew may not be held to account are warranted. To date, no one has been charged in the brutal kidnapping and assault death of Daniel Terry Williams, 22, who died the day he was set to be released, raising concerns that those who commit deadly assaults in Alabama prisons may believe they can do so with impunity. 

“so overcrowded it’s awful and I’m in here for not returning Redbox games and movies”

Mr. Hamer’s criminal record shows a history of drug and property offenses. He pled guilty to escape from a work release center in Decatur in 2009. 

The original charge that resulted in his 115 month sentence, of which he was to serve 19 months, was first-degree theft of property for not returning rental movies and games, according to court records. Those offenses occurred in April 2016 and he was arrested on the theft charge in December 2018. The indictment against Mr, Hamer states he failed to return “numerous Redbox movies and game disks” with a value of $7,124.19.  Redbox filed for bankruptcy in June 2024, which was 14 months after Mr. Hamer’s probation was revoked, and a judge a month later ordered the company to liquidate its assets and shutter the business. 

In September 2021, Mr. Hamer was arrested on drug possession charges, and coupled with not paying fees and not reporting to his probation officer as required under the Redbox theft conviction, a judge agreed to revoke his probation. He was ordered to serve the remainder of his 115-month sentence in prison, court records show. 

In February of this year Mr. Hamer wrote to a Madison County judge and asked that his probation reinstated, and said that since he’d been in prison he was baptized, had a construction job waiting for him in Huntsville. “My way has never worked so I’m going to try all this a different way,” he wrote to the judge. “Let God’s will in my life guide my life…I’m just asking [sic] one chance to prove myself to society.” The judge denied his motion. 

He wrote another Madison County judge in September of this year, just 41 days before he was attacked, asking the judge to help him. He wrote that the prison was “so overcrowded it’s awful and I’m in here for not returning Redbox games and movies,” and that “I love myself now.  Have a reason to want to live.” The judge hadn’t issued an order in response to his letter, court records show. 

Bibb Correctional Facility was at 198 percent capacity in September, the last month for which the Alabama Department of Corrections has published those figures. 

By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher

Daniel Terry Williams, 22, was likely smothered to death on November 9, 2022 inside Staton Correctional Facility.

Daniel Terry Williams, 22, was likely smothered to death a year ago on Saturday, 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. 

Despite witnesses who saw Mr. 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. 

In a prison system where frequent, violent deaths are common, the homicide of Mr. Williams stood out for a number of reasons: he was serving a short sentence for a minor crime, he was scheduled for release within days, his torture over a prolonged period went undetected for days, and his assailant had a long record of institutional violence that went unaddressed. 

And now, it appears, no one will be held accountable for this young man’s suffering and death.

“Insufficient probable cause to issue an indictment”

The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) Law Enforcement Services Division completed its investigation and forwarded those findings in July to the Elmore County District Attorney’s Office for presentation of a criminal case to the grand jury, an ADOC spokeswoman told Appleseed. 

“The case involving the death of Daniel Williams was investigated by the I&I Division of DOC,” wrote 19th Judicial Circuit District Attorney CJ Robinson in a response to Appleseed last week. He referred to ADOC’s Law Enforcement Services Division as I&I, which is the abbreviation of the division’s former name, the Investigations and Intelligence Division. 

“The completed casefile was submitted to the 19th Judicial Circuit DA’s Office several weeks ago and presented to the first available Grand Jury in Elmore County (October 2024). After hearing the details of the investigation, the grand jury determined there was insufficient probable cause to issue an indictment,” Mr. Robinson said. 

In Mr. Williams’ case, the grand jury had the opportunity to hear from investigators and review any video footage before being presented with three possible offenses to indict on: murder, manslaughter, or criminally negligent homicide, Mr. Robinson told Appleseed. 

“They took a long amount of time to hear the evidence and for their deliberations,” he said. But ultimately, they failed to receive 12 votes to indict. 

Mr. Robinson also shared that if additional evidence or witnesses surface that might change the grand jury vote, he would consider re-presenting the case, which is something he has done in the past. 

“Diffuse abrasions and contusions on his upper extremities that may be defensive in nature”

Dr. Edward Reedy, chief medical examiner for the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, conducted the autopsy, and his report includes details of Mr. Williams’ tragic last few days. 

“There is evidence of ligature restraint on the decedent’s ankles and contusions on various locations that are also suggestive of manual restraint,” Mr. Reedy wrote in the report, also noting there were “Multiple abrasions and contusions in varying states of healing” and “diffuse abrasions and contusions on his upper extremities that may be defensive in nature….The cause of death was probable asphyxia due to smothering.” 

Mr. Williams’ death, along with the deaths of numerous other incarcerated Alabamians, was brought to the attention of the Legislature’s Joint Prison Oversight Committee, which has held multiple public hearings in the last six months with several committee members showing increased concern about Alabama’s deadly prisons.

Appleseed’s executive director, Carla Crowder, addressed the Committee in a December 2023 meeting. “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.”

“His classification summary showed a five-year clear record of institutional violence, which resulted in a perfect score of zero in risk assessment conducted in October, and a total score low enough for him to be placed in medium security in an open bay dorm. The psych associates signed off on this and the warden signed off on this,” Mrs. Crowder told committee members. “Nine days later, 22-year-old Daniel Williams … was found, according to ADOC, unresponsive on this inmate’s assigned bed.”

The 22-year-old’s death caught the attention of journalists across the U.S. and abroad. AL.com’s John Archibald in January noted that ADOC’s records identify the suspect as being one who assaulted Williams on Oct. 22, 2023. Archibald identifies the suspect as “Inmate X” in his article, as the man hadn’t been charged.  

“Inmate Williams was found unresponsive on (Inmate X’s) assigned bed,” a DOC report says, according to Mr. Archibald’s reporting. “It appeared that victim had been assaulted. (Inmate X and two others) were believed to be involved in this incident.”

“Alabama prison officials wrote that report on Nov. 8, the day before Williams was taken off life support, two weeks after the assault, and only after Williams’ family hired a lawyer,” Mr. Archibald wrote. “Williams was declared dead the next day.”

ADOC didn’t classify the assault as a crime or levy a disciplinary charge, Mr. Archibald noted, but instead simply wrote the matter up as an “enemies report” which are supposed to be used to keep disputing incarcerated people from one-another. 

Mr. Williams’ death contributed to the record number of deaths in ADOC last year, a total of 325.

What’s next for the grieving family?

Despite the lack of criminal charges, multiple civil lawsuits are on the horizon, adding to the dozens of cases the State of Alabama is currently defending over prison deaths, excessive force by staff, inadequate medical care, and unconstitutional conditions. 

Andrew Menefee, an attorney representing Mr. Williams’ father, told Appleseed he plans to file a civil suit on behalf of the father.  “Daniel Williams’ death was tragic but unfortunately representative of other prisoner deaths and civil rights violations that Alabama citizens routinely see occurring in the state prisons,” Mr. Menefee wrote in a statement. 

Mr. Williams’ death came at a time when Alabama prisons are being closely watched by the U.S. Department of Justice, which in December 2020 sued the state and ADOC, 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,” according to the lawsuit. 

Tammy Williams, Daniel’s mother, told Appleseed that their hearts are broken in the wake of the brutal and preventable death of their son. 

“Daniel died from his injuries on the day he was set to be released from Staton. To those who mourn his loss with us: We thank you for the comfort and love you have shown us during these difficult times. To all others, we ask that you grant our family privacy pending the full outcome of this matter. We ask that you direct any and all inquiries to our attorney, Kirby Farris of Farris, Riley & Pitt,” Mrs. Williams said. 

by Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher

St. Clair Correctional Facility (photo by Bernard Troncale)

The lives of two young men, both 31, who died 23 days apart this year in separate Alabama prisons, were ended largely by the same drug, according to state medical examiners. 

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 last year of 435 per 100,000 people was 20 times the national rate across state prisons. 

Chase Mathis died inside Elmore Correctional Facility on June 4 in the minutes after his father last spoke to him by phone (photo courtesy of the family).

Tim Mathis knew his son, Chase, had a drug problem and had gotten into drug debt with other incarcerated men at Staton Correctional Facility, but when Chase realized his life was in danger and asked an officer for help, he was instead transferred to a dorm at Elmore Correctional Facility known for heavy drug activity, Mr. Mathis said. 

Chase Mathis died inside Elmore Correctional Facility on June 4 in the minutes after his father last spoke to him by phone, an ADOC investigator told Mr. Mathis. Instead of protecting his son, Mr. Mathis said the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) “threw him to the wolves.”  

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. He was given two doses of Narcan, a drug used to reverse an opioid overdose, but it wasn’t effective, according to the autopsy report. 

“I know what he was doing. I know why he was in the prison, but he shouldn’t have died there,” Mr. Mathis said. He places the blame for his son’s overdose death squarely on the back of ADOC, which he said “needs to get off their asses and do something” about the rampant drug crisis across the state’s prisons. 

ADOC is desperate to increase its dismal staffing levels, but continues to bleed staff due to corruption, officer arrests, and turnover. Recent hiring efforts have produced applicants unable to pass the drug screens and fitness tests, and who have gang affiliations who have been weeded out, reducing the numbers of new recruits. This week, ADOC Commissioner John Hamm revealed that the 4,000-bed mega prison under construction in Elmore County will have a final cost, including furnishing and move-in costs, of $1.25 billion, the most expensive prison ever built in the United States. The ADOC has produced no plan as to how this prison will be staffed; neither did the agency submit a 2025 budget at the Joint Legislative Budget Committee hearing this week.

The loss of life continues, claiming sons, brothers, husbands

Wesley Abernathy, 31, died on Mother’s Day inside Bullock Correctional Facility. The ADOC investigator assigned to his death told his wife, Amber Abernathy, by phone last week that the toxicology report shows it was a lethal dose of fentanyl that killed her husband. That report isn’t yet public record, and awaits the local district attorney’s decision regarding any possible criminal charges before it can be released, the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences wrote to Appleseed last week. 

Wesley and his wife, Amber Abernathy (photo courtesy of the family).

Mrs. Abernathy said she strongly believes her husband had no idea that what he may have taken before he died contained fentanyl. “He had been given it one time and was already scared of what it had done to him,” Mrs. Abernathy said. “They roll their own cigarettes, so they’re lacing these cigarettes with things.” She too blames ADOC for its failure in preventing the constant flow of drugs. 

“I don’t think that the guards are even watching when they should be, and you don’t know how many guards are bringing it in,” Mrs. Abernathy said. Mrs. Abernathy, who works as a social worker, asked why ADOC has not increased medical staff inside prisons as a result of the increasing numbers of overdose deaths. She warned other incarcerated people not to take substances from other incarcerated people or from officers, as they can’t be certain of what other drugs they might contain. 

Of those in ADOC custody, between 75 percent and 80 percent have substance use disorder, according to Appleseed’s report “A Bitter Pill.” Yet the drug treatment has plummeted across the prison system. In 2010, there were 5,242 incarcerated people in Alabama’s prisons who completed drug treatment, but by 2023 that number fell to 967. 

Alabama Appleseed asked ADOC whether Narcan, which cannot be abused, is made available to incarcerated people inside prison dorms. ADOC is working on a statement regarding the department’s use of Narcan, a spokeswoman told Appleseed. 

Alabama prisons saw a record 325 deaths in 2023. So far, ADOC investigations have determined that 112 of those deaths were from preventable causes, with 10 homicides, 13 suicides and 89 overdose deaths. The death rate in Alabama prisons has climbed to five times the national average. Alabama’s prisoner mortality rate is 1,370 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with a national average of 330 deaths per 100,000, according to the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics.

ADOC has a serious problem hiring and retaining quality officers as well, leaving prisons woefully understaffed. Records requests show 366 staff were fired between 2018 to 2023. Of those, 134 were charged with work-related crimes, ranging from smuggling contraband to assault and murder. Commissioner Hamm acknowledged in this week’s legislative budget hearing that the department was not going to meet a court-ordered staffing increase of 2,000 more officers by January, 2025. 

While there have been arrests of both ADOC officers and civilians, charged with contraband-related crimes, in speaking with incarcerated people who witness the many drug deals inside Alabama prisons, those ADOC staff arrests are just the tip of the iceberg, and many more officers continue to smuggle drugs and other dangerous contraband for substantial payments.  

Prison officers arrested across the state

ADOC officer Monica Blakeney was arrested at Limestone Correctional Facility on July 31, charged with second-degree promoting prison contraband for allegedly bringing amphetamine/methamphetamine into the prison, according to news accounts. Blakeney was released from jail on a $5,000 bond. 

ADOC officer Annetta Smith was arrested August 1 and charged with promoting prison contraband and possession of marijuana. Smith is being held under a combined $30,000 bond for her two charges. Smith has since resigned from her position with the ADOC.

Court records state Smith on August 1 “smuggled three packages wrapped in black electrical tape into Staton Correctional Facility” which contained 273 grams of marijuana. She admitted to smuggling in the drugs under her clothing to sell to an incarcerated man, according to those records. 

Kilby Correctional Facility officer Tyree Lynette Hoyle, 46, was arrested March 24 and charged with use of position for personal gain and attempting to distribute drugs. Court records indicate Hoyle met ADOC officer, Ebony Chillous, at the Montgomery Zoo and received three packages containing suboxone, marijuana and a cell phone. Chillous is also charged with attempting to distribute drugs and using her office for personal gain. 

Charging documents state Hoyle on November 30, 2023, conspired with a state prison inmate and Chillous to deliver drugs inside the prison. She received a $500 Cash App payment from an incarcerated man on November 9 and transferred the payment into her personal bank account, according to court records. 

Mario Grant, 32, an officer at Kilby Correctional Facility, was arrested February 26 and is charged with use of official position for personal gain and conspiracy to commit a controlled substance crime after smuggling drugs into the prison. The charging documents do not state what drugs he is alleged to have brought into the prison.