$57 Million in Tax Dollars: Investigative Reporter Documents Disturbing Pattern of Costly Excessive Force Settlements at Alabama Department of Corrections

By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher

Alabama taxpayers since 2020 spent $57 million for the state to defend lawsuits against prison officers and against class-action cases against the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC), investigative journalist Beth Shelburne reported for Alabama Reflector on Monday, the first in a four-part series that highlights the unconstitutional treatment of incarcerated people in Alabama. 

Meanwhile, attorneys representing the former ADOC commissioner in a lawsuit may have used artificial intelligence in a legal filing, which allegedly contained citations for fictitious cases, prompting the federal judge in that case last week to order those attorneys to appear in court Wednesday to answer those allegations. 

United States District Court Judge Anna M. Manasco in her order wrote that the plaintiff in the case “describes at length the bases for his belief that counsel for Defendant Dunn fabricated citations. In the light of the seriousness of the accusation, the court has conducted independent searches for each allegedly fabricated citation, to no avail.” 

The order pertains to legal work done by the Butler Snow law firm, among the most highly paid of the many private firms who have been given taxpayer-funded contracts to defend the State and ADOC employees.

Just last week, the Alabama Legislature wrapped up its 2025 session, approving the largest ever budget for ADOC at $940 million. Horrific abuses, corruption, and violence persist in the face of massive state expenditures.

Shelburne’s reporting found a disturbing pattern of excessive force settlements, revealing widespread violence at the hands of corrections officers across the state’s prison system. While comprehensive national data on similar lawsuits in other state prison systems is difficult to obtain, correctional experts say the volume of settlements in Alabama stands out as alarmingly high.

Between 2020 and 2024, Alabama settled 94 lawsuits alleging excessive force by correctional staff. The allegations paint a portrait of systemic brutality. Documented incidents span the entire prison landscape—from the Loxley Community Work Center, which houses low-security inmates working in the community, to Holman Correctional Facility, home to Alabama’s death row.

Shelburne noted, however, that the 94 excessive force complaints that resulted in settlement payments “do not represent the total lawsuits filed against ADOC officers, many of which are dismissed by the courts.”

Nearly half of the lawsuits involved injuries requiring hospitalization, including lacerations needing stitches, broken bones requiring surgery, and traumatic brain injuries, Shelburne’s reporting notes. Court records and medical documentation describe a grim litany of abuse: one man suffered two broken arms in a staff assault; another had ribs and spinal bones fractured; a third was hospitalized with broken limbs. Nineteen lawsuits described head injuries, and at least seven victims were left permanently disfigured or disabled.

Shelburne’s findings emerged from a months-long review of court filings and financial records obtained from the Alabama Department of Finance, detailing payouts from the state’s General Liability Trust Fund. 

Among the lawsuits noted in her reporting was one filed over a 2018 assault at Ventress Correctional Facility.  

“The complaint stated an officer handcuffed the victim behind his back, then struck him from behind, “breaking his jaw in two places, sending a large portion of his jawbone between his teeth and spraying blood all over the wall.” ADOC settled the lawsuit for $90,000, and according to court documents, terminated the officer who assaulted the man,” Shelburne reported. 

Shelburne’s research also found that at least a half dozen lawsuits allege that officers used excessive force on incarcerated men who were “in need of mental health or medical attention, including two filed by men who said they were beaten while having a seizure.”

Alabama Reflector is slated to publish the remaining three parts of the series this week: 

May 20: Even as the prison population has declined, use of force incidents in Alabama’s prisons have soared, and corrections officers involved have not only held onto jobs, but been promoted.

May 21: The anatomy of one inmate’s allegations against a corrections officer, and the aftermath.

May 22: Who’s paying for these settlements? You are. Who’s getting the most money from this litigation? Attorneys defending corrections officers.