The man the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) believes was responsible for the kidnapping, torture, rape and death of 22-year-old Daniel Williams inside Staton Correctional Facility in 2023 stabbed two other men this week at Holman Correctional Facility.

Lamont Wilson stabbed two men at Holman on Wednesday, according to multiple people who told Appleseed about the incident. One victim suffered such serious injuries and was evacuated from the prison by helicopter. ADOC has not responded to Appleseed’s questions about the attack.

“When is something going to be done with him, or is this going to be swept under the rug like my son?,” asked Mr. Williams’s father, Terry Williams, speaking to Appleseed on Friday. He’d shared a post about the Holman prison stabbing to his Facebook page on Thursday. “I can’t tell you how broken-hearted, mad and frustrated I am with all of this.”

The murder of Daniel Williams, a young father who died the day before he was scheduled to be released, made news across the country. A month later, Appleseed shared the history of ADOC’s failures leading up to his death at the Legislature’s Joint Prison Oversight Committee’s public hearing in December, 2023.

It is unclear why ADOC’s website still lists Mr. Wilson as a “medium” custody inmate, meaning he is housed in less restrictive conditions and can remain in the general prison population, despite a long history of serious assaults, sexual violence and death across state prisons. Holman, considered a level five or “maximum security” prison, includes one-person segregation cells where prisoners with disciplinary issues are secured away from the general population. Someone within ADOC decided Mr. Wilson did not need this level of security and returned him to an open dorm where weapons are readily available.

Mr. Wilson pleaded guilty in 2023 to first-degree assault in St. Clair County Circuit Court for a previous attack on an older prisoner at St. Clair Correctional Facility who was nearly killed. He originally was charged with attempted murder. The attack was also detailed in a federal lawsuit. “His assailant was able to enter his locked cell and stabbed him in his arms, chest, back, head, and neck, using two ice picks,” according to the Second Amended Complaint, filed Aug. 28, 2015. “[The victim] suffered extensive injuries to his back and neck, including chipped vertebrae, requiring treatment at UAB hospital.”

Shortly after that case was resolved, Daniel Williams was likely smothered to death, according to the state’s chief medical examiner. Evidence found on Mr. Williams’ body corroborated accounts from witnesses who said he had been kidnapped and tortured over several days inside Staton prison. Dr. Edward Reedy, chief medical examiner for the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, conducted the autopsy. His report details injuries consistent with the accounts of Mr. Williams’ final days. “There is evidence of ligature restraint on the decedent’s ankles and contusions on various locations that are also suggestive of manual restraint,” Reedy wrote in the report. He also noted “multiple abrasions and contusions in varying states of healing” and “diffuse abrasions and contusions on his upper extremities that may be defensive in nature.”

“The cause of death was probable asphyxia due to smothering,” Reedy wrote.

Daniel Terry Williams, 22, was likely smothered to death on November 7, 2022 inside Staton Correctional Facility. No one was charged in his death.

Appleseed obtained Lamont Wilson’s full ADOC Classification Summary which documents nine reports of Mr. Wilson sexually assaulting other incarcerated men between 2017 and 2022. Some of the reported assaults also involved additional violence, including stabbing. The reported assaults occurred at Donaldson, Fountain, Ventress, Bullock and Limestone correctional facilities. Mr. Wilson received no disciplinary reports for any of those reported sexual assaults, according to the classification records.

ADOC’s own Classification Summary for Mr. Wilson in 2023 also listed reports against him during the previous 18 months for selling drugs and threatening someone who owed him money with violence, placing a “hit” on another inmate, sexually assaulting an inmate at Donaldson and raping an inmate at Fountain. Yet a risk assessment conducted Oct. 13, 2023, gave Mr. Wilson a score of zero in the category “History of Institutional Violence” during the previous five years. He also received a zero under “Most Severe Disciplinary Report Received.”

On Nov. 8, 2023, while Mr. Williams was on life support for injuries suffered in Mr. Wilson’s cell, ADOC staff completed Mr. Wilson’s annual classification review. The review noted that Mr. Wilson had not received a disciplinary report since 2018 and recommended no changes to his medium-security status.
Mr. Williams died the following day.

An Elmore County grand jury reviewed the evidence against Mr. Wilson in October 2024 but declined to indict him in Mr. Williams’ death. It’s unclear what exact evidence that grand jury saw and heard, because grand jury proceedings are not publicly held, but it has been widely known for years that more cameras are needed throughout the state’s prisons. Even so, ADOC has failed to install and maintain enough cameras to adequately monitor what happens inside its facilities.

In a recent filing in the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit against Alabama and ADOC documenting unconstitutional violence, sexual assault, and excessive force in the state’s prisons for men, federal attorneys included as exhibits 20 “Sexual Abuse Incident Form” documents compiled by ADOC officers in 2022 and 2023. In each of those documents, ADOC officers indicated that additional cameras were needed. Under the question, “Should monitoring technology be deployed or augmented to supplement supervision by staff,” officers wrote responses including “More cameras,” “More cameras would be better,” “more cameras & longer time retention of video footage,” “cameras would have assisted” and “Always need more cameras.”

Despite all of the evidence that Mr. Wilson requires a higher level of custody, it’s unclear whether that would matter, because ADOC seems unable to control the movement of incarcerated people inside prisons, and rules regarding where a person is assigned to sleep, or remain while awake, are not regularly enforced, according to federal attorneys in the DOJ’s lawsuit.

A plea for help hangs inside a cell at Holman Correctional Facility during a media tour.

Then-Commissioner John Hamm minimized unauthorized prisoner movement, testifying in that ongoing federal case ‘Well, you go visit other people at their house, and I mean, you’re not there with malicious intent, then everything is fine, you go back to your house. So if an inmate in a dorm goes to another dorm and just going to say hi, that’s fine, but they are inmates.’”

For the family of Mr. Williams, and now for two other men at Holman, the consequences of what happens when prison officials fail to adequately monitor and respond to violence remain painfully real. As is the case in much of the suffering and violence that occurs in Alabama prisons, officials at ADOC, the largest law enforcement agency in the state, have released no information about these attacks.

Since 2024, Appleseed has called for independent oversight and monitoring of Alabama prisons. Finally, in 2026, the state established a pilot program in which the Office of Examiners of Public Accounts is conducting oversight operations for one prison, which has not yet been named.

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My name is Kamora Porter, and I am honored to be joining Alabama Appleseed as the Program Assistant for Parole and Reentry. As a recent graduate of Emory University, where I earned two degrees in Political Science & African American Studies, I am elated to begin my professional journey with an organization that is deeply committed to social justice and creating meaningful change in Alabama. I am elated to be working for an organization like Appleseed that believes in the power of second chances! 

I have always been passionate about advocacy and have spent much of my academic and personal life thinking of the best ways to be an advocate for others. Growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, a city rooted in a rich history of advocacy and overcoming, shaped and molded my understanding of the importance of this work. From a young age, I could not help but be aware of the struggles within our state’s justice system and saw firsthand how these policies affect individuals, families, and communities. My connection to this work also comes from personal experience. I often think about my own uncle who struggled with recidivism and spent years constantly moving from prison to prison. Through his experience, one thing remained consistent: the horrid conditions of Alabama’s prisons and the many difficulties our criminal justice system poses for those trying to find a path forward. His story was one of many that has stayed with me and shaped the way I think about justice and accountability but most importantly, second chances. 

This is one of the major things I deeply admire about Alabama Appleseed. The organization recognizes the need for reform within our criminal justice system and also understands that commitment to this work requires extending this advocacy to the lives of individuals. Appleseed centers people most impacted by these systems and ensures that individuals, people like my uncle, are treated with fairness, dignity, and a genuine opportunity for redemption.

It is organizations like Appleseed that remind me just why this work matters. At its core, Appleseed is committed to helping the lives of people in Alabama not just today but for years to come. To be able to contribute to that mission, especially at the beginning of my career, is an opportunity that I do not take for granted. 

I am so grateful to be able to join this amazing organization and am excited for all that this experience will teach me. I hope to gain both the breadth and depth of knowledge that will allow me to grow as an advocate and carry this work with me wherever the future leads. Even more importantly, I am excited to learn from people who do this work day to day and play even a small role in making a more just Alabama.

The post Appleseed welcomes new program assistant Kamora Porter appeared first on Alabama Appleseed.

Seven years after the United States Department of Justice first documented unconstitutional levels of violence, sexual assault, and excessive force by guards fueled by extreme mismanagement, dysfunction and corruption across Alabama’s prison system for men, a new 260-page motion from the federal government reinforces what prisoners and their families have consistently claimed since then: Alabama’s prisons remain catastrophically dangerous and ADOC leadership has failed to take basic measures to address the human rights crisis festering in the state’s largest law enforcement agency.

The DOJ’s motion for summary judgment builds upon the complaints filed in 2020 and 2021 with page after page of recent episodes of institutional violence and abuse along with the state’s ineptitude at curtailing it. “It is not uncommon for prisoners to report being held hostage, beaten, abused and extorted by other prisoners,” the DOJ writes. Although the motion is heavily redacted for safety and security reasons, Appleseed was able to pull the following details from the approximately one-third of the motion that was not redacted. 

The lack of accountability and supervision starts with ADOC’s executive leadership. The DOJ’s motion draws upon depositions from the highest ranks at the department’s central office. 

Concerning former Commissioner John Hamm: “He does not know how many overdose deaths there are in the facilities—he does not receive reports on overdose deaths, but he asked about them “periodically.” He testified he does not visit each facility at least once a year. He has heard reports of prisoners sleeping in dorms they’re not assigned to, selling their racks, and being homeless, but that’s the warden’s job to run the facility and he has not talked to them about those issues. He does not keep track of data about sexual assaults; he does not review LESD reports about sexual assault; and has not talked to wardens about sexual assaults in the facilities.”

Concerning current Commissioner Greg Lovelace, interviewed while he was serving as Chief Deputy Commissioner: “He testified that he is the number two in the organization and is supervising the entire ADOC system for the Commissioner. He spends most of his time on the new prison project, and has not seen any reports regarding the extent of violence, contraband, or sexual assaults in the system.”

The pleading documents wardens who have no clue as to what policies and procedures govern the agency along with flagrant ignorance among agency leaders about critical issues such as staffing, investigative procedures, and corrective action since the DOJ initially raised these issues in its 2019 CRIPA (Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act) report.

“Similarly, Alabama also used to hold regular meetings where they would discuss violence in the prisons, but Alabama stopped these meetings and when the meetings occurred, Alabama did not track whether any recommended violence mitigation measures discussed at the meetings were implemented by the facility wardens.

Alabama fails to respond reasonably to the extensive violence and sexual violence in the prisons. Alabama fails to conduct proper investigations, track valuable information, or use available information to mitigate the substantial risk of violence and sexual violence. These systemic deficiencies, taken as a whole, show deliberate indifference,” according to the motion.

The case is set for trial in November. U.S. District Judge Harold Mooty has informed both sides that he plans to visit the 13 prisons at issue in the litigation prior to the trial.

“Erosion of the physical plant”

For years, Gov. Kay Ivey and many legislators have relied on promised new prisons as the remedy. But Alabama prisons have been overcrowded for two decades, the DOJ points out, putting major strain on the physical plant. And yet, maintenance at these current facilities has been woefully lacking.

As the DOJ expert put it: “The erosion of the physical plant of Alabama’s facilities reflects the erosion of willingness or ability to manage the correctional system.”

“Despite acknowledging that the prisons are falling apart, Alabama has failed to respond reasonably to the substantial risk posed to prisoners continuing to be incarcerated in the facilities. For example, there is supposed to be a maintenance supervisor at each prison responsible for the day-to-day maintenance at the prison. However, not every major male prison in Alabama has at least one employee who does maintenance.” 

None of the state’s major prisons have preventive maintenance plans, there are no regular audits of working conditions and the person in charge of research and planning for ADOC “does not have information related to maintenance of facility management and she does not know who would produce that data.” 

Instead the prisons have been left to fall apart, with broken equipment routinely fashioned into weapons.

Governor Ivey’s Alabama solution to an Alabama problem

Violence is pervasive throughout the state’s system and has been for several years, the federal government states in the motion, and yet ADOC “also fails to properly classify all incidents, obscuring the official numbers reported for some violence.” The federal government’s new motion then appears to catalogue dozens of homicides occurring after the state was notified of federal action and vowed to improve conditions. 

Alabama officials stood before the press and constituents seven years ago and vowed to quickly address these issues.  “Our primary objective is to ensure each facility provides a humane, secure, and safe environment for inmates, and that reforms already in place and proposed bring about positive, tangible changes throughout the prison system,” then ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn said in a statement with Gov. Kay Ivey regarding the DOJ’s 2019 findings letter.   

“Over the coming months, my Administration will be working closely with DOJ to ensure that our mutual concerns are addressed and that we remain steadfast in our commitment to public safety, making certain that this Alabama problem has an Alabama solution,” Ivey said in the statement. 

The joint statement reads that ADOC “has been actively working to remedy these concerns by improving correctional officer hiring and retention; developing effective prison management, including efforts to curtail the entry of contraband; and replacing an outdated prison system with state-of-the-art correctional facilities designed to safely, effectively, and humanely manage and meet the needs of a diverse inmate population.”

“In response to DOJ’s findings, it is important to understand all the current efforts ADOC has taken and will continue to take to improve the conditions of confinement within the male prison system,” Mr. Dunn said. “Governor Ivey’s commitment to working closely with the Legislature to resolve this generational problem will ultimately lead to a 21st Century prison system.”

Despite assurances in 2019 that the state was working to address the DOJ’s concerns and stem the tide of contraband and deaths, those deaths only increased in the following years. The new motion documents the following: “From 2019 to 2024, as reported by Alabama, prisoners killed at least 78 other prisoners in ADOC…Prisoners are routinely stabbed with prison-made knives and knives smuggled in from outside.”

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

Daniel Terry Williams, 22, was likely smothered to death on November 7, 2022 inside Staton Correctional Facility. No one was charged in his death.

Sexual violence also remains rampant inside the state’s prisons, where “prisoners engage in sexual acts for protection, for drugs, and to work off debts.” Unreported sexual violence occurs “hidden behind sheets draped from top bunks to conceal what is happening on lower bunks, all occurring in the absence of staff” and one man “testified he had been beaten, held down, and raped numerous times in ADOC.” This too was documented seven years ago.

Overcrowding and understaffing have been problems for more than two decades, which leads to violence and sexual abuse, the DOJ’s motion states. The prisons have operated above design capacities since at least 2000, and there is regularly one officer covering multiple posts, “leaving entire housing units unsupervised for excessively long periods of time. … Regional Director Edward Ellington testified that it was permissible for an ADOC facility to have no officers assigned to watch a housing unit.” 

“If inmates don’t stop it, it don’t get stopped,” one incarcerated man told the DOJ. “They just come after you’re dead or he’s dead or after they’re all done and be like, Come on, let’s go to Seg.” One prisoner testified that it took him a week to report that he was sexually assaulted “because other prisoners would not let him out of the dorm.” 

ADOC’s inability to control the movement of incarcerated people inside prisons contributes to the unconstitutional violence, and staff fail to ensure people are sleeping in their assigned beds. Bed roster counts and the wearing of wristbands that denote which housing unit a person is assigned to are not consistently enforced. Yet leadership shrugs. “Even Commissioner John Hamm minimized unauthorized prisoner movement, testifying, ‘Well, you go visit other people at their house, and I mean, you’re not there with malicious intent, then everything is fine, you go back to your house. So if an inmate in a dorm goes to another dorm and just going to say hi, that’s fine, but they are inmates.’” 

A crowded dorm in an Alabama prison

Because movement isn’t controlled, prisoners lose assigned beds to stronger prisoners or due to debts, becoming essentially homeless and “sleeping on the floor, in dayrooms, or even outside.” Controlling movement is critical to keeping sexual assault victims and predators apart. 

One warden interviewed by DOJ investigators couldn’t say how many dorms her facility had, or if her facility’s population was “less than 10,000 prisoners. (It is around 1,200 prisoners).” She didn’t know how many homicides occurred at her prison since she became warden, and knew very little about the homicides that happened in the previous month.  She was uncertain about the details of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act that governs how state prisons handle sexual assault incidents, and when asked if she could change one thing about her prison “she said the location because of her commute.” 

Ongoing excessive force, assaults and homicides by officers

From 2019 through Jan. 31, 2025, at least 12 ADOC officers and supervisors have been criminally convicted of charges related to assaulting incarcerated people, and at least five more were charged for assaulting prisoners. 

“At Elmore, two officers, a sergeant and a lieutenant, were convicted of an incident in which the sergeant repeatedly punched, kicked, and struck two handcuffed prisoners with a baton,” and at Staton, an officer and a sergeant were convicted of kicking a prisoner and striking him with a baton, then lying about the incident in a report and to a state investigator. 

The DOJ noted the beating death of Steven Davis by multiple officers at Donaldson Correctional Facility in 2019 that resulted in a $250,000 settlement to his mother.  “ADOC settled that case after Judge Proctor denied in part the defendants’ motion to dismiss, concluding that “fourteen incidents in three years is sufficient to plead ‘obvious, flagrant, [and] rampant’ abuse…” 

Despite the repeated warnings as a result of the DOJ litigation, ADOC supervisors failed to prevent and address excessive force, and use excessive force themselves, the DOJ states.  “A lieutenant at Donaldson repeatedly used excessive force, culminating in his criminal conviction in 2023” and yet, “An ADOC official admitted she had never seen a facility report in which a captain recommended corrective action.” 

Despite widespread excessive use of force incidents, ADOC fails to properly investigate or handle these incidents, including one in which a man said an officer woke him “by striking him in the head with a baton because he did not turn over fast enough.” 

“The prisoner had a sleeping disorder. He testified that a baton blow broke his arm and that the warden later arranged for him to be seen by medical. ADOC files do not mention an officer using force in this incident.”

ADOC lacks a system to track use of force, and fails to prevent “the same officers and supervisor, and others, from repeatedly using excessive force against prisoners.” The motion again documents extreme complacency by ADOC leadership and staff over years: “Commissioner Hamm never received training on use of force in a ‘correctional setting.’ He did not know whether ADOC had a centralized database to track uses of force. He did not know whether uses of force increased or decreased during his tenure. He had never talked to a warden about use of force. He could not remember the last time he reviewed an LESD investigative report related to use of force.” 

“An ADOC use-of-force investigator testified that she did not recall any manual about how to conduct investigations, and she does not make determinations or recommendations about whether uses of force were justified, nor does she receive training about how to complete audit forms about uses of force. The investigator concurred with facilities’ findings that uses of force were justified, even when the files did not include body chart documentation, photographs, or statements from officers and prisoners.” 

Leadership’s response

In the state’s own motion for summary judgment, filed late Monday by private Alabama attorney William “Bill” Lunsford, he argues that the state has made “demonstrable, consistent, and comprehensive efforts” to resolve the allegations of inadequate correctional staffing; excessive use-of-force by officers against incarcerated people, violence and sexual abuse among the incarcerated and a failing classification system.

Attorney Bill Lunsford of Butler Snow

On the DOJ’s allegations regarding excessive use-of-force, the state’s motion reads that the DOJ cannot “establish a policy or practice of excessive force or a “history of widespread abuse” that should have put supervisors on notice of repeated excessive uses of force.”

In support of that argument, the state notes that for a particular six-month period, almost half of the use of force incidents reviewed by ADOC’s own review board were deemed unjustified, but the state alleges those instances of excessive use of force were handled properly. Yet, the data the state argues shows ADOC is properly handling excessive use of force instances instead clearly shows that the violence at the hands of officers is widespread.  “For example, between August 2024 and January 2025, ADOC’s Use of Force Review Board reviewed at least 58 use-of-force incidents and found 26 uses of force unjustified or unnecessary,” the state’s motion reads. 

Despite the state’s arguments that ADOC has taken meaningful steps to resolve the DOJ’s concerns, Alabama prisons remain overpopulated, understaffed and filled with contraband. 

In April 2019 there were 27,660 people in custody of ADOC, with 5,480 of those aged 50 or older. This April there were 28,568 incarcerated by the state, and 8,171 aged 50 and older. The month that DOJ’s report was published in 2019, Alabama prisons were at 168 percent capacity. The state’s prisons were at 171 percent capacity in March 2026. 

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

Alabama prisons hit a record high number of in-custody deaths in 2023, when 327 people died, and more people died in Alabama prisons per capita than in any state in the nation in 2024, and at a rate that was nearly double those of the next highest state. In 2023 Alabama prisons 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.

Not for lack of funding

ADOC’s funding has exploded during the course of the litigation as the agency has increased pay for officers, signed expensive contracts for medical care and legal services, and spent double the budgeted amount for a new mega prison. The general fund allocation to the agency has gone from $486 million in 2019 to the current $883 million, swallowing 25% of the entire General Fund.

The Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority this month agreed to borrow almost $200 million to build a new 4,000-bed prison in Escambia County, which increased the budget for that prison project from $700 million to $900 million. The state’s other new 4,000-bed prison project in Elmore County has already cost more than $1.25 billion. 

The rising costs of these two new prisons is already at least $900 million more than the state Legislature in 2021 approved, when the expected cost then was set at $1.3 billion for both prisons. 

The cost to taxpayers to defend the state’s unconstitutional prisons in courts continues to balloon as well. Mr. Lunsford has already been paid at least $56.4 million defending ADOC, and with an additional $38 million he’s set to receive to defend the state’s prisons from the DOJ’s lawsuit, he’ll have been paid $94.4 million. 

With this motion, the DOJ argues that the 260 pages of facts laid out are beyond dispute; that the state violates the Eighth Amendment rights of incarcerated men and that the plaintiffs are entitled to judgment in their favor.

The post New motion in DOJ case documents 7 years of complacency and denial following state leaders’ promises to address human rights crisis in Alabama prisons appeared first on Alabama Appleseed.

In Alabama last year, both violent and property crime fell by a combined 7.5 percent, following a consistent trend of decreasing crime rates across the U.S., according to the Federal Bureau of Investigations crime data analyzed by Appleseed. 

Despite frequent public perception that crime is surging, all four violent crimes, defined by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting program as rape, robbery, aggravated assault and homicide, fell in Alabama and across the country last year.  

In 2025 violent crimes in Alabama fell by 6.5 percent from 2024, and property crimes (larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, burglary and arson) fell even further, by 7.8 percent. 

Violent crime has not been this low nationwide since 1968, and property crime rates are lower than they have been since pre-1960s, according to an analysis of FBI data by Jeff Asher, a nationally recognized crime data expert and co-founder of the data analytics firm AH Datalytics. 

Falling crime has continued to trend across the country, and in Alabama, for many years. Over the decade from 2015 and 2025, violent crime in Alabama fell by a combined 25.7 percent, while property crime dropped by 41 percent. 

Alabama’s largest cities

Birmingham is on pace to end 2026 with the lowest number of homicides since 1951, according to AL.com. Between January 1 and June 30, 2026, there were 24 homicides in Birmingham. 

“That is a 35 percent decrease over the first half of 2025, which saw 37 slayings at that point in the year and a nearly 70 percent drop for the same time period in 2024,” AL.com reported. 

Homicides in Birmingham decreased  43.8 percent last year, according to the Birmingham Police Department’s statistics. Total violent crime in 2025 decreased 5.6 percent, while property crimes increased overall by 3.6 percent, largely due to an 11.5 percent increase in thefts that offset the 19.6 percent drop in auto thefts. 

Birmingham Police Chief Michael Pickett, who has overseen a historic drop in homicide in the city.

It was much the same in the city of Mobile, which saw a 16 percent decrease in homicides in 2025, a 32 percent decrease in sex offenses and a combined 11 percent decrease in robbery and aggravated assaults, according to the Mobile Police Department’s (MPD)  crime statistics report. Overall crime in the city fell by 11 percent in 2025. 

The falling crime in Mobile last year isn’t an anomaly. It’s been steadily dropping there for years as well. 

“When reviewing the 10-year comparison (2016-2025) it shows a steady reduction in Part 1 Crimes over the last eight years. We are pleased to report that in 2025; Part 1 Crimes were down -52% compared to ten years ago,” the MPD report states. 

Huntsville saw similar reductions in crime numbers last year. 

“From 2024 to 2025, violent crime dropped 18.3%, and total reported crime fell 5.8% – a decline from 14,583 offenses in 2024 to 13,725 last year,” Huntsville Police Department’s annual 2025 report reads. 

Crime drops, along with incarceration

Politicians love to use crime to scare people into voting for them. And this election cycle is no different. But it’s much easier to scare people than to keep them safe. To understand, and hopefully maintain, these important declines, Alabama policymakers should pay as close attention to what’s driving the good crime news as they do when a tragic crime grabs headlines and motivates them into sudden action.

No one who is serious about analyzing and understanding crime rates will point to a single cause. It is a complex issue driven by factors as diverse as economics, demographics, and policing.

What we do know is that jamming more people into prisons for long sentences has not caused the drop. And we know this because over the last decade the state’s prison population saw a notable drop, right along with the drop in reported crime, showing the downward crime trend can’t be linked to longer prison sentences or increased incarceration rates. 

Here’s what happened:

In 2014, Alabama faced mounting pressure to deal with a prison system busting at the seams. With prisons at 195 percent capacity and two lawsuits pending, state leaders were aware that Alabama could be forced to release a number of incarcerated people, just as happened in California with the landmark Brown v. Plata case, where the Supreme Court ruling ordered the release of 30,000 incarcerated people over two years. 

Instead, a prison reform task force was formed. The task force included the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, several District Attorneys and the corrections commissioner. They partnered with The Council of State Governments Justice Center (CSG) which resulted in the passage of legislation, aiming to “strengthen community-based supervision, divert people convicted of the lowest-level drug and property offenses from prison to Community Corrections Programs (CCPs), and ensure supervision for everyone upon release from prison to reduce recidivism.” 

In addition, beginning in 2006, the Alabama Sentencing Commission developed and implemented the use of Sentencing Standards to create more consistency and fairness in sentencing practices, and to give judges more options outside of incarceration for lower level felonies.

“In 2012, Alabama’s incarceration rate was the third highest in the U.S., with 650 sentenced individuals per 100,000 adult residents,” a 2014 CSG report reads. Since then, Alabama has consistently dropped to around the 11th or 12th highest incarceration rate in the U.S., closer to Ohio than national leader Mississippi.

So what is causing the drop in crime across the country and here in Alabama? 

Experts warn against placing the cause on any particular factor. However, John Roman, director of the Center on Public Safety at NORC at the University of Chicago, in a recent interview with crime stats expert Jeff Asher, explained the many factors that he thinks resulted in a spike in homicides during the early months of the COVD-19 pandemic. His explanation includes a rash of first-time gun owners who had their guns stolen and later used in shootings, but Roman says the overall downward crime trend is more complicated. 

While many police departments and local governments point to new policing tactics and newly formed task forces as the cause, Mr. Roman cautions against this. He notes that while changes in policing can have an impact, the crime drop is happening everywhere, in rural and urban areas, in red states and blue states across the country. 

“It’s happening all at once. The cause must be national,” Mr. Roman states.

Billions in federal COVID-19 relief funds paid to boost staff in education and social service organizations, behavioral health services, jobs that can prevent young people from committing crimes in the first place, likely had an impact on the drop, among many other factors, he explained. 

Getting the public to believe the data shows crime is dropping in the first place is a difficult task, Mr. Roman explained. 

“I think there are people whose politics are their identity, and they’re never going to be moved off a position and that happens on both the left and the right,”  Roman says. “But I think that for the vast majority of the public, if you give them timely data that is well explained, I think you can change people’s minds.”  

Sen. Greg Albritton, who sits on the Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority, which just approved a $195 million bond sale to bring the total cost of a new prison in his district to almost $900 million.

The latest and best available crime data is very clear; crime is dropping in Alabama and nationally. It’s up to Alabamians and their lawmakers to consider what that means. Is investing $5 billion over five years into a failing prison system, more than $1.2 billion for a single new mega prison, another $900 million for a second new prison, and more than $80 million to a single attorney and his staff to defend the indefensible, the answer to the state’s deadly prison crisis? 

We think there are better ways to invest that money that would not only create safer prisons, but safer communities outside of the fences. Let’s take advantage of falling crime and invest instead in programs and services that improve lives and increase public safety.

The post The good news about crime that you probably won’t hear about in election ads appeared first on Alabama Appleseed.

In the face of such dysfunction, private Alabama attorney William “Bill” Lunsford is set to receive over $38 million more to defend the state’s indefensible prisons.  As Appleseed has continued to research payments to Lunsford, we keep finding new piles of money dating back to 2016. The current total is $56.4 million paid so far, and another $38 million in pending contracts requested by the Alabama Attorney General’s Office for a new grand total of $94.4 million! 

Lunsford and his firm have been hired to defend the Alabama Department of Corrections in multiple class action lawsuits, as well as smaller civil rights claims brought by incarcerated people who have been beaten or abused, or by the families of incarcerated people who have been killed in state custody. The ongoing violence, corruption, and mismanagement suggests a litigation strategy focused on paying expensive, private lawyers to drag these cases out rather than settling them and addressing the human rights crisis across the state prison system.

Attorney Bill Lunsford of Butler Snow

Lunsford is paid far more than any other government employee in the State of Alabama, including the Governor. $94.4 million could fund the salaries of every District Attorney in the State of Alabama for at least nine years. $94.4 could fund the entire Alabama Attorney General’s Office, which employs about 80, for six years.

But there’s still time. The contracts providing this money have been put on hold for 45 days following last week’s Joint Contract Review meeting, giving lawmakers the time to ask important questions and the Governor time to remove her approval.

Tell Gov. Ivey you do not want more of your taxpayer dollars going to a single, private law firm to continue defending the Department of Corrections– ask her not to approve any new contracts to Bill Lunsford.

Contact Gov. Ivey by emailing her office using this link, or call 334.242.7100.

If you wish to also email your state representative and senator about this issue, you can find them here. Find contact information for your representative here, and your senator here. If you need assistance with your outreach, please contact Appleseed Policy and Advocacy Director Elaine Burdeshaw by emailing elaine.burdeshaw@alabamaappleseed.org.

For more information, read Appleseed Researcher Eddie Burkhalter’s story documenting Lunsford’s rising pay and showing how other states have responded in the face of DOJ litigation here.

The post Total tax dollars for William Lunsford and the Butler Snow firm now at $94 million appeared first on Alabama Appleseed.

The private Alabama attorney William “Bill” Lunsford, individually and in his role as an appointed state Deputy Attorney General, has been paid $48.8 million defending the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) as of Aug. 5, and millions more of our tax dollars are headed his way.

Huntsville Attorney William Lunsford

That staggering number, taxpayer funds paid to defend the state’s deadly, chaotic prisons, will skyrocket to $86.8 million if the latest contract increase request of $38 million by ADOC goes through as expected. Most of the new money is for an anticipated trial in the slow-moving DOJ case. Appleseed confirmed these totals through state records.

It’s hard to imagine Alabama could prevail in a trial where the U.S. Department of Justice is expected to lay out a case that federal attorneys have been building since 2019, when the DOJ first issued an initial report detailing the widespread, horrifying abuses inside Alabama’s prisons for men. The DOJ filed suit in December 2020. Since then, the state has completely failed to curtail the violence, death, and corruption at the heart of the lawsuit, instead overseeing years of record deaths totaling more than 1,300 since the case began. Many of those facts are also on full display in the documentary The Alabama Solution, which uses cell phone footage from inside Alabama prisons to show rampant violence, deadly force by officers, open-air drug use and a system in chaos. The trial is set for November.

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

Across the country, few states have let lawsuits over conditions much less troubling go all the way to trial. Instead, state officials agree to bring those prison systems into line, working with federal officials and the courts on settlement agreements that are enforced by monitors. Alabama is an outlier when it comes to dragging these cases on, and one has to question what the state gains in doing so.

It’s hard to question, however, whether Lunsford stands to gain by pushing towards a trial, instead of a settlement, because the many tens of millions in tax dollars going to him seem to speak louder than the voices of those who argue the money could be better spent actually trying to solve the myriad systemic issues inside Alabama’s deadly prisons. 

Comparing the legal costs with other state spending on lawyers in Alabama makes the Lunsford contracts even more alarming. His current and anticipated payments could fund the salaries of every District Attorney in the State of Alabama for at least nine years, according to recent state General Fund budget documents. The Lunsford contract amounts could also fund the entire Alabama Attorney General’s Office, which employs about 80, for six years.  

In a state that purportedly prides itself on fiscal conservatism, only one Alabama lawmaker has questioned the legal spending. Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, has temporarily held up the two new contracts for Lunsford to defend the ADOC against the federal government’s lawsuit.

Rep. England, a member of the state Legislature’s Contract Review Committee and the Joint Prison Oversight Committee, put a 45-day hold – all he’s legally allowed to do – on a $30 million contract to Lunsford to pay for litigating the DOJ’s lawsuit over prisons for men, and another $3 million to Lunsford for his legal work on the longrunning Braggs v. Dunn lawsuit over mental health treatment inside state prisons. 

ADOC’s request Thursday would push the total spent to defend the department in Braggs v. Dunn to $14.2 million. Legal spending in Braggs has not been a good investment. In June, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson’s findings of deliberate indifference at the institutional level, concluding that ADOC’s mental healthcare was “horrendously inadequate.” The Eleventh Circuit ruled that the prison system violated the constitutional rights of thousands of incarcerated people with severe mental health conditions by showing deliberate indifference to their mental healthcare needs.

In a candid conversation with Appleseed the former director of another state’s department of corrections explained that it makes no sense for a state to place the majority of its prison litigation with one private attorney, whose business is centered on prison litigation, because it incentivises that attorney to drag the case out and continue billing those legal hours instead of finding ways to help solve the crisis and save the state money. 

A question worth asking is, if most DOJ lawsuits over prisons ended in either consent decrees or settlement agreements, what has Alabama gained by dragging out this legal fight? 

Other states settle and address the problems, Alabama write checks to private lawyers

The Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) of 1980 is a federal law meant to protect people incarcerated in state and local prisons and jails, those in nursing homes, mental health facilities and other group settings. The DOJ’s 2020 CRIPA lawsuit against Alabama is one of many the federal government has filed since the law’s inception, but one of very few that appears to be headed all the way to trial. 

In these matters, the DOJ generally issues a findings letter to states documenting civil rights abuses in prisons and jails, as it did to Alabama in 2019, and if the federal government isn’t able to secure an agreed upon resolution, the DOJ can file a lawsuit, as it did over Alabama’s prisons for men. 

In most of those other states where a lawsuit is filed, the cases are adjudicated through settlement agreements or consent decrees prior to going to trial, where the outcomes are uncertain, the costs to states in legal fees can be exorbitant, and the abuses persist as the cases drag out. 

Among the many examples of cases settling without trials:

In 1996 the DOJ filed four CRIPA complaints –  with Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Florida  – and all four were later settled. 

In 1997 there were six new CRIPA complaints filed, and four of those six ended in settlements. 

All four of the DOJ’s CRIPA complaints filed in 1998 were settled, and the following year, in 1999, the DOJ filed seven new CRIPA complaints and all seven later ended in settlements before going to trial. 

The DOJ’s investigation in 1998 found that staff at five county jails in Phoenix, Arizona “used excessive physical force and restraints in violation of the constitutional rights of individuals detained in the jails.” Arizona and the DOJ entered into a settlement agreement that required the jails to increase staffing and better train staff in the use of force.

Similarly, all three CRIPA lawsuits filed by the DOJ in 2000 settled prior to trials, and another two new CRIPA lawsuits filed in 2001 also settled. 

More recently, Massachusetts Department of Corrections settled with the DOJ in 2022 over mental health care and suicide prevention. The DOJ’s investigation found  “unconstitutional conditions and circumstances where incarcerated people in mental health crisis harmed themselves up to and including suicide…The department found that MDOC did not adequately supervise individuals in mental health crisis, did not provide them adequate mental health care, and used prolonged mental health watches under restrictive housing conditions.”

Settlements have continued in recent years. In 2023 the DOJ entered into a consent decree with the Minnesota Department of Corrections over what the federal government said was disability discrimination throughout the prison system. Virginia in 2019 settled a DOJ lawsuit over religious practices inside Virginia Department of Corrections prisons. The New Jersey Department of Corrections in 2022 signed onto a consent decree with the DOJ over allegations of sexual abuse, excessive force and retaliation at a prison for women. 

Mississippi lawmaker: “We don’t want to be in a situation like Alabama.” 

The DOJ in 2020 opened an investigation into four prisons operated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections, including Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman), Southern Mississippi Correctional Institute, Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, and the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility, and four years later released a 60-page report that mirrors many of the findings in Alabama’s case, and states that “MDOC routinely violates the constitutional rights of people incarcerated at all three facilities by failing to protect them from widespread physical violence.” 

Parchman Prison in Mississippi. Unlike Alabama, Mississippi has avoided a DOJ lawsuit over prison conditions.

“The state does not adequately supervise the incarcerated population, control the flow of contraband, adequately investigate incidents of serious harm, or provide adequate living conditions. These problems are exacerbated by chronic understaffing that has allowed gangs to exert improper influence inside the prisons,” the DOJ’s report on Mississippi’s prisons reads. 

It’s been six years since the DOJ opened the investigation into Mississippi’s prisons, and two years since the release of the report, and the DOJ hasn’t filed a lawsuit, as it did just two years after filing its first report on Alabama prisons. 

Instead, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves hired Burl Cain, former head of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, to lead the state’s prison system and enact reforms. 

Cain, a controversial prison leader who opponents say overused solitary confinement and who faced allegations of a land deal with the family of an incarcerated man and an audit that showed he used prison workers at his private property, oversaw marked reforms at Angola prison, which in the 1970s was known for rampant violence. 

In an effort to help prevent a DOJ lawsuit, air-conditioning was installed in all but one unit inside 124-year-old Parchman prison, and a third of South Mississippi Correctional Institution now as AC, according to the Clarion Ledger. That one unit in Parchman, that had been the site of a gang war that drew national attention, was shut down and those incarcerated persons sent to another facility. 

“That’s hard work. That helps us with the Justice Department,” Cain told the Clarion Ledger. 

Mississippi state Sen. Juan Barnett, chairman of the Senate Corrections Committee, has warned his state lawmakers that if they fail to make the needed fixes, Mississippi could be facing a DOJ lawsuit as well. A bill he filed that would have closed Parchman and likely sent a portion of those incarcerated persons to a prison operated by a private prison company failed in a senate committee in 2025.  “We don’t want to be in a situation like Alabama,” Barnett told the Clarion Ledger. 

But Attorney Bill Lunsford is collecting tax dollars in Mississippi, as well. This time as the monitor for a private medical care contract. Last summer, that state approved a one-year $687,000 contract with Lunsford to lead a team from his firm, Butler Snow, to monitor the medical contractor providing care for the Mississippi Department of Corrections, according to Mississippi Today, which published a series of articles detailing medical neglect inside Mississippi’s prisons. 

“A complicated, sticky wicket.”

Remarkably, despite making millions defending Alabama’s prison system and asking for many millions more, an attorney working in Lunsford’s Butler Snow office filed a motion in the DOJ’s case on August 5 that failed to properly redact sensitive information about a new security measure within ADOC. Appleseed was able to read the data despite the redactions. 

Rep. Chris England has consistently scrutinized ADOC contracts.

Appleseed isn’t sharing that data, as it involves a large-scale security measure, but the misstep is at least the second embarrassing instance involving Lunsford and his team’s work on Alabama prison litigation. A federal judge in July 2025 removed Lunsford and two other attorneys from a civil rights lawsuit when the attorney for the plaintiff notified the court that a filing by Lunsford’s team included incorrect information made up by artificial intelligence. State records show Lunsford’s team took in $172,396 in the case in which AI was used.

After Rep. England spent more than 20 minutes questioning ADOC’s representative about the requested additional millions to Lunsford during last week’s Joint Contract Review Committee meeting, state Sen. Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook, the committee chair, noted that the state was working toward construction of a new 4,000-bed prison and is “anticipating building another facility” but that construction is “a little behind schedule.” The enormous new prison, which has swallowed $1.3 billion in state funding, should insulate the state against future litigation costs, Roberts suggested, before adding: “It is a complicated, sticky wicket.” 

The post Other states settle cases, Alabama writes big checks. New contracts will bring total ADOC legal spending for attorney William Lunsford to $86 million appeared first on Alabama Appleseed.

In the coming weeks incarcerated people in Alabama will be able to access valuable information on their electronic tablets from a national nonprofit that advocates for sentencing and prison reform. 

FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums) announced this week that the organization’s information will soon be available and free to use on Edovo tablets, which are in use in prisons across Alabama and in many other states. 

“We look forward to providing a variety of educational and motivational materials to institutions nationwide. Our offerings will range from extensive information about clemency, compassionate release, and sentencing reform to training on how to advocate from behind bars,” Kelly Haynes, Engagement Programs Associate for FAMM, told Appleseed.

Among the information FAMM will make available on those tablets for incarcerated people are step-by-step guides to creating their own advocacy stories and details on how to connect with lawmakers, videos about applying for sentencing relief, and audio/video/written stories of hope and inspiration from formerly incarcerated people and family members, Haynes said. News about upcoming reform legislation will also be included. 

“We will also feature our quarterly FAMMgram newsletters, so incarcerated people will receive timely news about what’s happening in the criminal justice system and how FAMM is working for reform. FAMM on Edovo will be an invaluable tool for people in prison,” Haynes said. 

FAMM supported Alabama Appleseed’s prison oversight bill, SB 316, which after many discussions with legislators and state departments involved, resulted in an agreement that led to Alabama’s first ever state-led prison oversight pilot program. The program covers Tutwiler and two to three men’s prisons, and will be headed by the Department of Examiners of Public Accounts who will carry out most of the monitoring responsibilities laid out for them in SB 316.

Family members of incarcerated people in Alabama are encouraged to ask their loved ones to search for FAMM content on their devices. FAMM will submit the first section of content this well, and it could take a couple of weeks for the review process to conclude and the information be made available on the devices. 

The post National Advocacy Group FAMM Offering Content on Alabama Prison Tablets appeared first on Alabama Appleseed.

John Coleman, 92, Appleseed’s legal client has been free for more than 3 years.

Supporters gathered for brunch June 9 to meet and celebrate some of the individuals freed through Appleseed’s legal work. Photos by Bernard Troncale

Carl Green, 65, has taken numerous classes and is hoping to find employment, following 36 years in prison

For hundreds of these incarcerated people, their convictions involved no physical harm to anyone. They were sentenced under Alabama’s outdated and draconian Habitual Felony Offender Act, and would not face such extreme sentences today. Many had aged into their 60s and 70s and struggled with the fact that they could die in prison.

Slowly, cautiously, we approached district attorneys to see if they would agree to give these cases a second look. And prosecutors and judges across Alabama began to see what we saw, that people once thrown away in some of the worst prisons can grow and change. They can become peacemakers, teachers, artists, and ministers. And permanent punishment is unnecessary and simply wrong.

June 9, Appleseed celebrated the cumulative impact of this innovative legal work. Our clients have served a combined 1000 years in prison. Now they are free, living lives of hope and meaning with their friends and family. And we acknowledged that these men earned their freedom, through exemplary behavior in some of the worst prisons in the country.

We celebrated with our supporters in Birmingham, a community of love and acceptance that has been instrumental in this work. Reentry support is critical to our success, and our reentry program relies on exceptional existing nonprofits to assist our clients with services.

This milestone would not be possible without Appleseed’s legal staff, led by Legal Director Scott Fuqua, a relentless and determined advocate for people once thrown away by the state.  Legal fellow Tayler Walton is critical to our new project representing women who have survived domestic violence, abuse, and neglect. And attorney Becca Cardin corresponds with hundreds of incarcerated people and makes sure everyone’s request is heard.

Client Johnny Crawford, who served nearly 40 years for robbery, shares his story with supporters.

In response to our growing number of successful cases, Appleseed established a holistic reentry program in 2021. Our three-person reentry team ensures clients have safe housing, medical care, transportation, and someone to talk to when they feel overwhelmed and alone. When elderly clients need hospital care, our team is right by their side. When someone moves into their very first apartment, our team finds the furniture, the pots and pans, and makes sure the refrigerator is stocked. 

Reentry case manager Kathleen Henderson has served our clients nearly four years, and has been the driving force in ensuring people have what they need, whether it’s a drivers license, chemotherapy, or supplies to plant their own tomatoes. Social Worker Ingrid Patrick brings incredible care and attention to detail in everything she does, treating all of our elderly clients like family. 

None of this would be possible without Ronald McKeithen, Appleseed’s Director of Second Chances, who served 37 years in prison before becoming our second client to earn his freedom. The night of his release, Ronald asked supporters gathered for a celebration, what can I do to help? Since that time he has been a beacon of hope, light, support, and guidance for dozens of people who deserve a second chance. 

Big thanks to Workshops Empowerment for hosting our brunch and to Appleseed’s Communications and Development Manager Keely Sutton, who pulled the celebration together so beautifully.

The post 1000 Years Overcome! Celebrating a Milestone in Appleseed’s Legal and Reentry Work appeared first on Alabama Appleseed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“There’s got to be a better process”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

England also expressed concern for the unpaid workers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grammy-award winning singer and songwriter, Jason Isbell, performs a benefit concert for Appleseed April 16 at the Lyric Theatre. Photo by Josh Weichman

Read more here.

Highlights:

Appleseed’s focus on representing people unnecessarily incarcerated under extreme sentences has resulted in freedom for dozens of Alabamians. They are catching up on lost time with their beloved families, holding down jobs, and trying to recover from decades in Alabama’s brutal prisons. Recent wins include:

• Medical parole for Leon “Bud” Hotchkiss, 70, who served 14 years on a marijuana conviction.
• Parole for Milton Hambright, 63, who served more than 30 years and immediately found employment operating a forklift at a Cullman manufacturing plant.

Milton Hambright enjoys his freedom. Pictured with Scott Fuqua, Kathleen Henderson, and Ronald McKeithen from our staff.

• Parole for Scarlette Orso, 62, who served 17 years on a manslaughter conviction. Ms. Orso is Appleseed’s first criminalized survivor as the victim in her case had abused her for years.
• Parole for Tommy Rogers, a US Army veteran who served 22 years without a single disciplinary. Even the victim’s family in his case supported his release.
• Parole for Marcus Miller, 57, who served 27 years during which he did his own legal work to successfully challenge an illegal life without parole sentence.
• Parole for LaToya Davis, who served 26 years for an offense that occurred when she was only 15.
• Medical parole for Jamaal Mabry, 29, who was sentenced to prison for a robbery conviction, then suffered a stabbing injury which left him quadriplegic.

Appleseed led multiple legislative wins this session, including pushing two criminal justice reform bills over the finish line and helping to develop a pilot program for independent prison oversight that will launch immediately. Our success came from working closely with those most impacted by the system. Read about Elaine Burdeshaw’s experiences this session in the newsletter.

The post April 2026: News and Updates appeared first on Alabama Appleseed.