Alabama Appleseed Applauds Agreement for a Prison Oversight Pilot Program

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Years of relentless advocacy by families of incarcerated Alabamians has resulted in a new prison oversight pilot program to create transparency and accountability at the Alabama Department of Corrections.

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.”

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Thirty-two-year old Marvin Taylor was beaten inside Ventress prison. So why does his death certificate say he died of natural causes?

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SB 316, Alabama’s Prison Oversight Bill, Has Been Filed. Now Let’s Get It Passed.

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More oversight, transparency, and accountability could be coming to the Alabama Department of Corrections under SB 316, filed last week by Sen. Larry Stutts, R-Tuscumbia.

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.

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Appleseed’s Callie Greer receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Crime Survivors Speak

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Team Appleseed and the incredible Callie Greer were honored this week in Montgomery by Crime Survivors Speak, a network of crime survivors who create healing communities, develop leaders, and drive policies that make everyone safer.  The group held a 200-person strong rally and march in Montgomery on Wednesday.

Appleseed’s Callie Greer, honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by Crime Survivors Speak

Fore more than a decade, Callie has led community healing events, helped advocate for improved policies around crime victim compensation, and used her voice and influence across Selma and Montgomery to give a voice to survivors of violence.

Callie as she receives her lifetime achievement award. Photo by James Gilbert

Crime Survivors Speak announced the following:
The Crime Survivors Speak Lifetime Achievement Award honors an extraordinary individual whose lifelong dedication has transformed personal experience into lasting change for survivors and families impacted by violence. This award recognizes decades of advocacy, leadership, and unwavering commitment to advancing healing, expanding access to victim compensation, and strengthening communities. Through courage, resilience, and service, this honoree has helped shape a more just and survivor-centered vision of safety for generations to come. We’re honored to present the Crime Survivors Speak Lifetime Achievement Award to Callie Greer.
The Crime Survivors Speak Community Partnership Recognition Award is presented to Alabama Appleseed in appreciation of your partnership and leadership in organizing Survivors Speak Alabama and in supporting families impacted by violence.
The Crime Survivors Speak Community Partnership Recognition Award is presented to MAAVIS in appreciation of your partnership and leadership in organizing Survivors Speak Alabama and in supporting families impacted by violence.
Callie Greer, Appleseed’s Community Navigator for the last three years, is a veteran community organizer and advocate for better, safer, healthier communities in Alabama. After losing her son, Mercury Colley, to violence and her daughter, Venus Colley, to cancer, Callie has used her powerful story and voice to inspire others. She reminds us all, “Don’t waste your pain, turn it into something terribly beautiful.”
Congratulations, Callie!
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Remembering three Appleseed clients who died waiting for a chance at freedom

By Scott Fuqua, Appleseed Legal Director

A vigil was held on February 18th at the State Capitol to remember the people who have died in our prisons this decade. Most made mistakes that led to their incarceration. Most were suffering from addiction and were sentenced to a prison where hopelessness is endemic and drugs are more readily available than they are on the street. None deserved to be sent to a place where the death rate is nearly double that of the next highest prison system in our country with a suicide rate five times higher than it is for Alabamians as a whole.

Three of our clients have died waiting for their second chance at freedom. Their names were Tommy Tunstall, Dock Boyd and Wesley Warren. In total, they had served over 100 years for crimes where they didn’t cause physical harm to another person. No one in Alabama was safer because we incarcerated them for decades beyond when it was clear they had learned from their mistakes with their advanced age and poor health rendering them only a costly burden on the state’s taxpayers. 

Appleseed Legal Director Scott Fuqua and advocates from across the state attended a vigil honoring those who died in state prison custody. Scott represented three of the men who died. Photo by Bernard Troncale

In 2019, the US Department of Justice investigated the state of our prisons and filed a lawsuit declaring, “Prisoners at Alabama’s Prisons for Men have continued daily to endure a substantial risk of serious harm, including death…the unconstitutional conditions are pervasive and systemic.” In the seven years since the first report detailing the deadly conditions was released, the crisis has continued to deepen. All of the over 1500 people whose pictures were laid out in front of the Capitol steps last week have died since the results of that investigation were first made public.

Despite this crisis, the majority of the 21,000 people in our prisons will survive their ordeal. Many will leave prison suffering from more acute drug addiction than they had prior to their arrest and dealing with varying degrees of post traumatic stress from the conditions they endured. 

However, with more than 6,500 people serving sentences of life, life without parole, or virtual life in Alabama’s prisons, the burden of people growing old, aging about of criminality, yet requiring expensive health care and ultimately dying behind bars will only continue to grow in the coming years. The taxpayers of Alabama are getting a poor return on their investment for public safety.

There is no reason Alabama should be uniquely incapable of administering criminal justice in a manner that protects the constitutional rights of the people living in our prisons. There are many good people working within our prison system, but like the people they are tasked with guarding, they are stuck in a broken system desperately in need of systemic reform. Every prison system has flaws, but we should not settle for being the worst by many metrics at something of such great importance. 

The good news is that many things can be done to address this crisis. If you haven’t seen it, watch the Alabama Solution documentary which has been nominated for the Oscar for best documentary. Ask others if they are aware of this crisis. Call or write to your representatives in the Alabama legislature to let them know this situation isn’t acceptable and urge them to use their power as your elected representative to fight to solve this crisis by passing SB316, which will create a system of oversight which will shed light on the various aspects of this crisis. 

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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

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By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher

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. 

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Chronicle of Philanthropy calls Appleseed “one of the South’s most unexpectedly effective advocacy groups.”

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Alabama Appleseed has been featured in the prestigious Chronicle of Philanthropy!

Here’s what they’re saying:

“In a state dominated by a Republican supermajority and long resistant to criminal-justice reform, Alabama Appleseed has become one of the South’s most unexpectedly effective advocacy groups.”

The article traces Appleseed’s leap into legal and reentry services, beginning with the case of Alvin Kennard, our first client freed from a life without parole sentence.

“When Carla Crowder walked into a Jefferson County courtroom in August 2019, she didn’t expect to change the direction of her small nonprofit, the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. She was there for one man: 58-year-old Alvin Kennard, who had spent 36 years behind bars for stealing $50.75 from a bakery in 1983 at age 22. His three earlier felonies — burglaries he committed at age 18 — meant he was sentenced under Alabama’s notoriously harsh “three-strikes” law, which mandates life without parole even for a low-level offense in which no one is physically harmed.

Crowder’s group hadn’t taken on individual clients before. The tiny policy and advocacy shop she had joined just months earlier was built to study and reform the state’s criminal-justice system, often through data-driven reports. But when a judge asked her to represent Kennard, she agreed — and when he was released, the story ricocheted nationally. That moment reshaped the organization’s sense of what was possible.”

We are so grateful for our funding partners at the National Football League who invested in this work early on, and now more than 30 Alabamians are freed from draconian sentences.

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 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

The story goes on:

“Crowder used the funds to hire a newly minted lawyer, and together they began combing through spreadsheets and legal files. Their next case was Ronald McKeithen, who had served 37 years for a robbery he committed at age 21. After his release, he joined Appleseed’s staff and remains a core part of its re-entry team.

As more people were freed, more letters poured in from others seeking help. “Nobody else was doing these kinds of cases anymore,” Crowder said. “By taking individual cases, we’re both filling such a huge gap in legal services and learning about the brokenness of the system from their stories.”

Read the full story: How Unlikely Allies Help One Small Nonprofit Get Results in a Deep Red State

 

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SB254, a bill to bring fairness to parole revocations, filed in the Alabama Senate

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An Appleseed-supported bill that would bring more fairness to the parole revocation process and help prevent unnecessary revocations that do not contribute to public safety has been filed in the Alabama Legislature.

SB254, sponsored by Sen. Sam Givhan, R-Huntsville, would give the parole board greater discretion when someone on parole is arrested for a minor offense or when they have committed technical violations. Current law mandates revocations in many of these kinds of cases. The rigidity of the existing statute has resulted in people with long histories of employment and compliance being returned to Alabama’s crowded and violent prisons unnecessarily. 

SB254 was developed after years of research and communication with incarcerated Alabamians. Appleseed shared some of these stories in our Taking a Life report, which documented people across the state who were living successful lives and meaningfully contributing to the workforce, then sent back to prison on a parole revocation despite having no new convictions.   

            This common sense bill:  

  • Ensures the parole board is able to consider all the facts when someone on parole has been charged with a new offense, but not yet convicted, to determine whether they are satisfied that the individual seems to have committed the offense.
  • Ensures people with certain underlying offenses who have been arrested for more serious crimes are still automatically revoked, but allows the board discretion when those same individuals are arrested on more minor charges or when they have committed a technical parole violation. 
  • If an individual’s parole has been revoked for a new charge and that charge is later dismissed or worked down to something more minor, the board may automatically reinstate parole or bring the individual back before them within 90 days for a review. 

Among the people impacted by this bill are Archie Hamlett and Vinson French, both men in their 50s, who were incarcerated under life sentences for nonviolent crimes, then eventually released on parole. They spent years working and contributing to their communities, then were arrested on new charges that never resulted in convictions..

Archie Hamlett

Mr. Hamlett now, following revocation

Archie Hamlett Truck

Archie Hamlett at his home in Hazel Green before his parole was revoked last year.

Mr. Hamlett, who is 53, is currently trying to manage his trucking company, Hamlett Logistics, from Easterling Correctional Facility. He was paroled from prison, where he served decades on a marijuana trafficking conviction, and was a successful business owner and homeowner. Last January, Madison County deputies pulled him over as he drove home on icy roads after suspecting he was driving under the influence. While he was detained on the side of the road, he requested to retrieve a urinal from his truck; Mr. Hamlett has a documented medical condition. The deputies declined that request, and he urinated beside his truck. He was charged with public lewdness, a misdemeanor that was later nolle prossed on a motion by the state, meaning they declined to prosecute the case, noting that he was already returning to prison through mandatory parole revocation. SB254 would have provided the parole board discretion to consider all of the circumstances involved in his arrest, including his medical condition, the minor nature of the public lewdness charge, the behavior that contributed to that charge, and any recommendations from his parole officer. When the charges were nolle prossed by the state, Archie’s revocation would have been revisited by the board.

Mr. French, who is 59, has not committed a new felony in 35 years. While at work in 2020, he was charged with theft because he was sitting in a truck near a trailer filled with stolen scaffolding. A Montgomery County District Court Judge quickly dismissed the charges for lack of probable cause and ordered him released. However, his parole had already been revoked and he was transported back to prison. For more on the frustrating chain of events that have left Mr. French languishing in prison as he nears age 60, please read our report, Taking a Life: With life sentences, the State of Alabama controls thousands of rehabilitated individuals long past the point of danger, until death. But why? 

 

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Another deadly year in Alabama prisons claims 202 lives

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By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher

More than six years after the State of Alabama was put on notice that its violent and dangerous prisons violate the United States Constitution, the death toll inside state prisons 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 the Alabama Department of Corrections (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. 

Tim Mathis speaks before the Legislature’s Joint Prison Oversight Committee. Mr. Mathis is one of hundreds of Alabama parents whose children have died in state custody.

The extraordinary loss of life inside prisons run by the largest law enforcement agency in the state has left families devastated and searching for answers. Often families are notified of these deaths by a warden who shares little detail about how the person died. That’s in part 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.

Therefore, while we know how many people died, getting an official account for how they died is more difficult. A 2021 state law requires the department to publish a quarterly report containing statistical data on the number, manner, and cause of inmate deaths occurring in prisons “including the results of any autopsy provided to the department by a third party.” ADOC began including a section labeled “Final autopsy results” in those reports. However, without stating a reason, the department removed that section from the reports beginning with the last quarterly report in 2022, despite the reports still containing the phrase that “the final autopsy results reflect the opinion of the medical examiner conducting the autopsy of the final cause of death.” 

The lack of transparency surrounding these deaths is all the more alarming given ADOC and the state’s years-long legal battle over the unconstitutional treatment of incarcerated men. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division in 2019 released its first report detailing the out-of-control prisons for men in Alabama, The federal government in December 2020 sued the state and ADOC alleging widespread use of force, corruption, rampant drugs and contraband, and the inability of ADOC to keep men safe from sexual and physical violence and death.  

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

Alabama Appleseed’s own project to track and publish state prison deaths began in 2024 and the initial batch of data we have collected has been included in UCLA Law’s data. (Individual-level data on Alabama prison deaths in 2024 can be found by visiting UCLA Law’s Github site and navigating to the raw data for Alabama. The project will soon add Appleseed’s 2022 data to the site.)

Despite the lack of transparency surrounding the causes of death, through Appleseed’s own tracking of these deaths, from news accounts and a review of a list kept by a group of advocates, Appleseed believes at least seven people died as a result of homicides inside state prisons in 2025. That’s only one less than were killed in 2024. In 2023, the record high year of deaths, there were 14 homicides in Alabama prisons.  

Among those 2025 deaths were Michael Thomas Jones, 47, who died on February 6 after a previous assault at Limestone prison, and Cordel Ladon Battle, 30, died from a stabbing at Donaldson prison on Feb. 11. 

Montavius Banks, 31, died on June 6 after an assault at Limestone prison. Antwion Webb, 45,  died on Oct. 13 after an assault at Donaldson prison. Kendall Stone Kent, 25, died on Oct. 21 after being assaulted on Oct. 7 at Easterling prison. 

Mikheal Christopher Gilliam died on Oct. 30 following a stabbing at Elmore prison. Eric Dewayne Sanders died on Dec. 9 after being assaulted at Elmore prison. 

So far in 2026 there have been at least 12 deaths in Alabama prisons, according to the list kept by the group of advocates. Appleseed is working to confirm those deaths. 

 

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Saving Lives While Serving Life Without Parole

By Carla Crowder and Carl Green

Carl Green learned how to provide emergency medical care to his fellow prisoners after they were beaten, stabbed, and cut inside Donaldson prison. Sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for a series of fast food restaurant robberies, Carl served 36 years in prison. No one counted exactly how many lives he saved.

Mr. Green served 36 years in prison before being represented by Appleseed and released.

Carl never expected to be released from prison. Appleseed took on his case several years ago after learning about him from Ronald McKeithen, our Director of Second Chances, who has known Carl since they were teenagers in Birmingham. Both of them came from difficult, impoverished backgrounds and they met in the City Jail. Carl was from New York, where he dropped out of school and went to work to help support his family at age 13, first as a delivery boy for a deli, then as a restaurant bus boy. There were five children in his family and no father figure, so he was committed to helping his mother. 

Eventually the family made its way to Alabama. Carl fell into struggles with drugs and alcohol as a young man. By age 30, his felony convictions – none of which involved physical harm of another person – resulted in a mandatory sentence of life without parole. He spent all of it in Donaldson Correctional Facilities, one of the most violent prisons in Alabama. 

Carl Green and Appleseed Legal Director Scott Fuqua on release day in 2025.

Beginning in 1993, he began providing medical care to injured incarcerated people, learning from another incarcerated man. Carl estimates that he stitched up between 20 and 25 people with varying degrees of injuries over the years. “Most of the jobs I did was butterfly stitches,” he explained. 

Carl walked out of Donaldson prison for the last time in December, thanks to a decision by Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr not to oppose resentencing. Presiding Circuit Judge Michael Streety entered an order resentencing Carl Green to time served and finding: “This Court is confident that had petitioner been sentenced according to today’s sentencing standards the imposed sentence could have been dramatically shorter in time.” 

Since his release, Carl is frequently in our office, working with Appleseed’s reentry team to develop plans for moving forward with his life at age 65. “I see myself as an old man now and opportunities aren’t as available as when I was young,” he said recently. “I regret the crimes I committed. I wish I could tell my victims how I feel.” 

Carl Green, Ronald McKeithen, and Appleseed Executive Director, Carla Crowder, enjoy a walk in Birmingham’s Railroad Park.

We prod him into sharing stories of his medical work in prison, in part because these make-shift heroics seem nearly unbelievable in a cell block setting: bleach for disinfectant, paper clips for needles, guards who knew what he was up to and thanked him. Yet, they became commonplace. So we asked him to write about his efforts so others could know both how horrific the violence is inside our prisons and how generous and determined to help some of the people our state has thrown away have proven to be.  Here are a few of his stories in his own words:

Around 1996, the violence had begun to pick up. A drug deal had gone bad within the gang, a package was not delivered on time. So the middle man was beaten and stabbed several times. I was asked to fix him. He was my first patient. He had a busted eye, a busted lip, two stab wounds to the shoulder. Being that he was the first inmate I ever worked on, I only used alcohol pads and just patched up the holes in his shoulder. And gave him some ice for the swelling on his mouth and eye. The big part was negotiating to keep him from being killed. 

As the years passed, the gangs became more violent and injuries were more severe. I once had to work on an inmate who had beat another inmate out of $25.  He had underestimated the situation and found himself in a world of trouble. This inmate was being held in a cell by two inmates that were killers. He had been sliced in on the neck with a box blade, (similar to a utility knife) all of this for a little of nothing, I thought to myself.

When I entered the cell to examine him I found this man holding a towel to his neck scared to death, eyes full of tears with a towel wrapped around his neck soaked in blood. There was an inmate at the door and another standing behind him. I got a spray bottle of bleach and sprayed the wound which sent him through the roof, oh the pain. When he calmed down I looked at the laceration. Two inches, long, third-degree injury. Barely missed his jugular vein. It was horrible.

I told the inmate with the box blade I can’t fix it. He almost lost his mind. He said if I can’t fix it, he’s a dead man. So I said “Wait, wait let me take another look.” The guy was begging for his life. I said I can fix it. Salt to stop the bleeding, bleach for infection, surgical tape strips for the suture.

A few hours of work, and a madman wanted to bring me another victim while [I was] working [on] the first victim. I said if you do I’m out and you got lockup. He came to his senses. And I finished my job. The two never had another problem. I saw my work a few weeks later, and it seemed I never stopped stitching inmates.

The next inmate got robbed while selling alcohol. He was beaten, stabbed, cut, and skin popped. I had to get another prison doctor to help me. Further he was more experienced and had all the medical supplies I needed. A good friend of mine. We had to check and make sure his lungs weren’t punctured and make sure he was not bleeding internally.

Puncture wound to his back, chest, laceration to face, chest and back, pumpkin head, face swollen, eyes, lips. I cut surgical strips, you suture, I pinch suture, I patch, go. No bubbles in holes and he’s bleeding out. Good, we’ve got 20 minutes before count time. Need a clean up man.

We fixed this guy in 20 minutes. We used Pine Sol, bleach, salt, real needles, and surgical tape strips, pressured his chest by hand, discovered no air in or bubbles in his blood, in the chest or back, and all the puncture wounds were bleeding out which meant we could work on him and didn’t have to send him to the infirmary. That’s prison doctor talk.

The worst, worst wound: an ice pick or a knife pointy as an ice pick. Or a Bone Crusher, or a short dog.

A friend of mine got hit with a short dog in the neck. He had beat a guy out of some drugs earlier in the month. Well, the inmate he beat out of the drugs happened to be a friend of mine as well. I talked to the both of them prior to the stabbing. It was quashed, until the one who stole the drugs started feeling untouchable. Face fights, reckless eyeballing, and a sneaky grin, set the battle in motion. Three on one; the drugs weren’t worth the violent torture. Three maniacs exacting revenge for their stolen drugs. It took every bit of energy to peel them off of him, and just for good measure a couple of shots to the back and shoulder blade on the way out, with the short dog. Three-inch blade, three-inch handle. Usually made from short steel scissors.

The shot in the shoulder blade caused a blood clot, which caused blood to flow to his neck. There was a knot on his neck the size of a baseball. I told him he wouldn’t make it to the infirmary if he didn’t let me get the clot out of his neck. At first he refused, when asked to look at his neck in the mirror and he saw his neck he took a seat and let me work on him. He held his breath while I pressured his chest, after several attempts the blood flowed out the hole in his shoulder blade. A blood clot popped out as big as a quarter. He was soaked in blood and so was the cell.

I negotiated his safe return to his cell and that he be left alone. And to stop the bleeding I used salt which made him hit the ceiling. I fed him for two days. Also, the fact that he had fainted from the strain and the loss of so much blood. He moved to another unit before being fully healed.

These are some of the things that can be made into weapons in prison:

  1. Metal boxes- knives, hatchets, axes
  2. Kitchen oven grills- ice picks 
  3. Plexiglass windows- knives, can’t be detected by metal detectors
  4. Bed rails- Make knives that are considered bone crushers
  5. Toenail clippers- make box blade, similar to a utility knife, after being filed down
  6. Locks- put on the end of belt buckles or in socks, used as slings
  7. Batteries- multiple batteries and a sock used as a sling 
  8. Steel short scissors- broke apart used as a short dog, [for] close-in fights.

These are some of the things that can be made into materials for medical work:

  1. Paper clips large or small, used as suture needles
  2. Good for curving: metal wire from brooms or mops. Metal from the arms of eyeglasses, guitar string. 

And all of the above you only have to flatten one end and make a hole in it. Now you have a sewing needle. I cannot forget to mention smuggled needles from the laundry.

These are some of the things that can be used as infection preventions: 

  1.  Salt- stops bleeding and starts healing process, burns the wound, painful as hell
  2. Pine Sol
  3. Bleach
  4. Sea breeze

Mix any of these, healed overnight.

This is not nearly close to the medical help given. The most important part is being able to negotiate to bring about a peaceful solution to a violent situation. That’s the real reward. In all the years of my work I’ve never charged one inmate. But have accepted a gift or two for my diligence. 

Carl Green and Appleseed’s Ronald McKeithen celebrate Carl’s release. The two have known each other since they were teenagers.

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