Alabama Prison Healthcare Faces Spiraling Costs and Grim Uncertainty. A Smarter Way Forward is Within Our Grasp.

, ,

By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher

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.

/0 Comments/by

Alabama Appleseed Applauds Agreement for a Prison Oversight Pilot Program

, ,

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.”

/0 Comments/by

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

, ,
Read more
/0 Comments/by

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

, ,

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.

/0 Comments/by

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

,
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!
/0 Comments/by

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

,

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

 

/0 Comments/by

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

,

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? 

 

/0 Comments/by

Another deadly year in Alabama prisons claims 202 lives

,

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. 

 

/0 Comments/by

Alabama mother fights for better quality of life for son who returned from prison with severe brain injury

,

By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher

William Thomas was found hanging inside his segregation cell at St. Clair Correctional Facility on Aug. 7, 2023. Although he lived, he’s still fighting to get his life back from the severe brain injury that has robbed him of his speech and mobility. 

Though William eventually was released from the hospital through a medical furlough and returned to his parents’ Huntsville home, he needs constant care and is unable to stand or fully communicate. His condition has thrust the Thomases into an ever-expanding community of families across Alabama with loved ones who emerged from state prison custody in previously unimaginable conditions: debilitating injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, even coma. 

It was another incarcerated person, not prison staff, who called Tanisha Thomas, William’s mother, and told her that her son had been found hanging from a light fixture in his cell. He had requested to be placed in a segregation cell to be safe from the physical abuse he was suffering, and to get away from the drug addictions fueled by the narcotics inside the prison, his mother said. The family believes that his hanging was either the result of hallucinations he may have been experiencing due to drug withdrawals or someone else may have tried to kill him. 

William Thomas before incarceration

At the time, the family drove to UAB Hospital in Birmingham and eventually was able to visit with William, who had been placed in a medically-induced coma. He was hooked to a ventilator. The family received very little information about her son from hospital staff, who were limited in what they could say by prison officials, she said. 

“Palliative care came out to me a few days later and tried to convince me to just make him comfortable, that he’s not going to be the same person. It’s not going to be a good ending. Don’t let him suffer,  and all that, and my religious belief is the complete opposite,” Mrs. Thomas said. “I’m not the giver, nor the taker, of life, so I wasn’t going to make that decision.” 

As her son began to improve, he was eventually taken off of the ventilator and breathing on his own.  “He opened his eyes on command. I told him, ‘Son, if you hear me, let me know you hear me. Just open your eyes.’ He opened his eyes,” she said. 

Tanisha Thomas comforts her son, William Thomas, who suffered severe injuries after being found hanging in his cell at St. Clair prison.

About a month after his injury, the family got a call at their Huntsville home from the hospital asking what they wanted done with his belongings. It was a confusing call, then they learned William was being sent back to the prison system where he nearly died. “Unbelievable. It was unbelievable,” Mrs. Thomas said.

His condition deteriorated once back in St. Clair prison’s infirmary. They’d visit him every Saturday that visitations were held. “Every time we saw him, he was getting worse and worse. His arms were contracting. He started losing his fingernails. He was losing his hair. He wasn’t even 100 pounds,” Mrs. Thomas said. 

A social worker with YesCare, the medical provider under contract with the Alabama Department of Corrections, began the process of getting William released on a medical furlough, but that process was dragging. A correctional officer who knew someone connected to the nonprofit Redemption Earned suggested William might be a good candidate for release, and Redemption Earned reached out and took him on as a client. He was paroled in April 2024 and was sent to a Birmingham nursing home in May of that year. 

William Thomas with his father and his son. Multiple generations of the Thomas family provide support to William.

William just recently began receiving Medicaid, which only pays for some medical costs incurred up to three months prior, so Mrs. Thomas is still dealing with his medical bills, and because she has to care for him day and night, she’s unable to work. Her retired husband went back to work but has only been able to find a part-time job. It’s been difficult getting her son the kind of therapy she hopes will help him get more of his life back. 

The TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas specializes in providing therapy for patients with catastrophic brain and spinal cord injuries. The family is raising funds to get him flown to the Texas hospital. 

“We know he won’t be the same, but we hope he gets a better quality of life,” Mrs. Thomas said. He is improving since he’s been home, she said. The two have worked out a way to communicate, and he’s able to move his arms and legs on command. 

“I try to ask him yes and no questions. So we’ve developed a process of where he blinks several times for yes and he doesn’t blink at all, or maybe once, for no. I’m a drill sergeant, and I told him, you know, I’m not gonna give up. We’re gonna keep going. We’re gonna keep going,” Mrs. Thomas said. She had advice for others who have loved ones inside an Alabama prison. 

“If they have a loved one in the prison system, no matter what their demons are, do not abandon them. I know most of the time the demons are drugs, and there is a major expense with that,” Mrs. Thomas said. “But don’t abandon them. They need a voice. They need an advocate to fight for them.”

William Thomas, pictured during healthier times, with his father and son.

William was incarcerated after a 2019 parole violation. His original conviction was for first degree-robbery in 2013, for which he was sentenced to 15 years. He would have been eligible for parole consideration in June 2025, a year and nine months after he was found in his cell. 

There were times while her son was incarcerated that she’d call the prison seeking a welfare check on William, only to later learn the officers who did the check mistreated him for having to conduct the check, she said. Today, the struggle for her is to try and care for him as best she can. Once a gifted athlete who played football and baseball, he’s now fighting to regain basic functions. “I just wake up every day and I know my son needs me. I’m learning how to do all of this feeding tubes and catheter cleaning. I’m learning how to provide medication. Love is driving me,” she said. 

 

/0 Comments/by

Amid overdose crisis in Alabama prisons, drug exposure sidelines two corrections officers

,

By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher

Two officers at St. Clair Correctional Facility were treated for exposure to an unidentified substance on November 29, requiring both to be given the life-saving NARCAN treatment and one of those officers to be hospitalized, the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) confirmed for Appleseed. 

It’s unclear from ADOC’s response what the substance was, but according to information from a person serving inside the prison the officers were exposed to fentanyl. 

The incident highlights the wide prevalence of drugs inside Alabama prisons, which in 2023 had an overdose mortality rate 20 times the national average across all state prisons in 2019, the last year for which the federal government has made that data available. The prison system’s overall mortality rate in 2024 was higher than that in any other state, and was nearly double that of the next highest state. 

The outside of St. Clair Correctional Facility

An ADOC spokeswoman confirmed to Appleseed this week that the officers were searching an incarcerated man when they came into contact with the substance. 

“They were escorted to the Health Care Unit where NARCAN was administered. One officer was sent home to rest following the incident. The other officer was transported to an area hospital for further treatment and was later discharged. Both officers are recovered and back at full duty,” ADOC spokeswoman Kelly Betts said. 

Exposure to illicit drugs inside Alabama prisons is a real and life-threatening matter for the staff who work inside the dangerously understaffed prisons, and yet it’s important to note that Illicit drugs are most often brought in and sold by ADOC  staff themselves, as publicized arrests and interviews with incarcerated people show. While ADOC has made increasing efforts in recent months to catch and charge these employees, drugs and the overdose deaths persist.

Records requests show 366 ADOC staff were fired between 2018 to 2023, and 134 were charged with work-related crimes, ranging from smuggling contraband to assault and murder.

Appleseed’s review of court records for the 169 Alabama Department of Corrections employees arrested between January 2020 and June 2025 statewide suggest that relatively few officers convicted of crimes serve prison sentences, with most cases instead resulting in suspended sentences, probation or pre-trial diversion. It’s important to note, however, that in misdemeanor cases for first-time offenders, such sentences would not be uncommon, and among the 79 felony cases Appleseed reviewed, several were prosecuted federally and did receive prison time.

Two men died of suspected drug overdoses at St. Clair on July 30. The next day, ADOC Lieutenant Calvin Bush was arrested and charged with trafficking fentanyl and marijuana, and promoting prison contraband. Investigators found a large amount of drugs and contraband in a filing cabinet inside the prison Bush had control of, and at a home in Odenville, where Bush lives, according to court records.

“During the search, agents recovered a significant amount of drugs and contraband, including 4,020 grams of methamphetamine, 350 grams of promethazine liquid, 340 grams of synthetic cannabinoid, nine oxycodone pills, 326 grams of sprayed paper, 156 cell phones, two cellular hotspots, 8,980 grams of marijuana, 100 grams of crack cocaine, 16 grams of cocaine powder, and 610 grams of flakka precursor powder. Additionally, a related search yielded 2.5 pounds of marijuana and 60 grams of methamphetamine,” ADOC told Appleseed in a previous statement.

Court records show that St. Clair County District Judge Brandi Hufford in September agreed to a joint motion from Bush’s defense attorney and the prosecutor to push back Bush’s preliminary hearing until Nov. 4, 2025, “to allow the investigation results to continue by agreement of both parties.” The judge approved a subsequent joint motion on November 4 and moved that hearing date to March 3, 2026. 

 

/0 Comments/by