It’s hard to keep up with the public justifications for Governor Kay Ivey’s plan to spend $1.3 billion in taxpayer money on 2 new mega-prisons, a $400 million chunk of it paid for with federal money intended for COVID economic recovery. When the mega-prison plan was first floated back in 2016, then-ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn claimed it was the only way to remedy a prison system plagued with failing infrastructure.
Now, the messaging du jour is that new mega-prisons are necessary to satisfy the Department of Justice (DOJ), which sued the state over prison conditions in 2020.
Let’s just unpack this argument for a bit, shall we?
The DOJ has never said publicly that Alabama must build new prisons to get out from under this federal lawsuit. In its 2019 findings, DOJ included both immediate and long-term measures that ADOC should implement “to remedy the constitutional violations.” The 25 immediate recommendations addressed understaffing & overcrowding, violence, contraband, sex abuse and facility conditions, without even a whiff of suggesting we build new prisons. If anything, the measures direct the state to reform the existing system, not spend billions to create a new catastrophe.
Look at these four recommendations regarding facility conditions, the lowest priority items on DOJ’s list. Has ADOC completed any of these immediate measures? What’s the motivation to do any of this if the state is fixated on building new prisons as the salve to this ongoing wound?
“Achieving an Alabama solution to our problems, rather than a federal order or court mandate was paramount,” said Governor Kay Ivey, flanked by white lawmakers and cabinet members at the 2021 prison construction bill signing ceremony. “Y’all, that’s what happened today.”
No mention of epic violence inside the prisons, excessive force or the robust prison contraband trade that’s led to a massive spike in overdose deaths. The Alabama solution is and has always been about building more prisons instead of trying to solve the problems inside the prisons we already have. Ivey is not the first governor to characterize federal intervention as the work of pesky lawyers who want to impose their yankee standards on Alabama. Before her, Fob James did it.
A recent news story on a protest against the prison construction included an interview with Cam Ward, former state legislator and current director of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. “What do the protestors want?” he asked (incredibly) and then attempted to justify the prison construction by claiming ADOC cannot provide adequate programming in the existing facilities. People I talk to, both incarcerated people and prison staff, say this is simply not true.
The current lack of programming inside ADOC is due to a lack of adequate & competent staff, not lack of space. Look at these abysmal program numbers from ADOC’s latest monthly statistical report. The 10-year picture shows program graduates have fallen off a cliff.
Even before COVID cancelled programs and closed the prisons to outside instructors, the number of incarcerated men and women earning GEDs inside ADOC fell 58 percent between 2013-2019, the number of people completing drug treatment in ADOC dropped 46 percent during the same time. Guess what else happened during that time? The in-custody population fell by 5000 people. So same space, less incarcerated people, but fewer program opportunities. That’s not a space issue, it’s a people issue.
Those of us against the new mega-prisons agree our current prisons are nothing short of wretched. But the fundamental problem is not the brick and mortar, it’s the excess of human beings crammed inside the cages and the lack of human beings working to keep them safe. It’s the mindset of those in charge who value deprivation and punishment over rehabilitation and correction. And it’s the legacy of Alabama seeking to remedy inhumane prison conditions through more of the same.
Since Mr. Ward asked what protestors want, here’s a short list, although he’s already well aware of these suggestions.
Abolish the habitual felony offender act & reinstate the “Kirby rule” to allow lifers a second chance.
Make sentencing guidelines retroactive so anyone sent to prison before 2013 can serve the same time they’d get today.
Validate the parole risk assessment and impose mandates that the parole board must follow its own guidelines.
Decriminalize marijuana.
Increase eligibility for medical furlough.
That’s just 5 suggestions, certainly not a “carte-blanch ‘let’s just release as many as we can’ approach.’” But these are reforms that create pathways out of prison, which doesn’t support the beeline for new prison construction.
It’s interesting to consider who is most enthusiastic about the new mega-prisons. It’s certainly not the prisoners themselves, they think it’s bullshit. The officers and other staff I speak to also think mega-prisons are an unnecessary diversion from facing the two main problems head on: overcrowding and understaffing. So who is excited?
Well, you can bet Caddell Construction in Montgomery and B.L. Harbert in Birmingham are thrilled. Those are the two construction companies that landed the juicy contracts after the state bypassed the competitive bidding process with language in the legislation that allowed the state to directly negotiate with contractors.
At a public hearing on the prison construction, Billy Norrell, CEO of the Alabama Associated General Contractors told lawmakers his organization enthusiastically supported the plan. At the same meeting, Troy Stubbs of the Elmore County Commission celebrated the century long economic partnership between his county and the Alabama Department of Corrections, which already provides hundreds of jobs in the three existing prisons in Elmore County.
The enthusiasm is from business interests, along with GOP lawmakers, the central office of ADOC and Governor Kay Ivey. Former prison commissioner Jeff Dunn was so dug in on building new prisons, he decided to close most of Holman Prison in Atmore—”swiftly and strategically,” because he claimed repairs to the prison’s electrical, water and sewer control systems were unsustainable due to safety risks inside a tunnel that housed the systems.
This conveniently dovetailed with the mega-prison talking points at the time—that the state simply had to build these new massive prisons because it would be even more costly to repair the 14 major prisons we already had.
Most of Holman’s population was transferred to other prisons (thus worsening overcrowding) but ADOC kept just over 300 men at Holman—currently 160 on death row and 147 in the “stand-alone E-dorm.” Those unlucky souls in the one open dorm were kept in place to continue working in the prison’s clothing and car tag plants (Alabama loves its free labor!) and the men on death row were moved to the old “restricted housing unit” aka SEG or solitary confinement.
I think about them and wonder if they’ve heard construction of the nitrogen hypoxia system ADOC has built for future executions. The whole thing is dystopian and ghoulish. Half the prison is forced into factory work and the other half waits to be gassed to death. And our state leaders want more prisons?
Meanwhile, the deaths in ADOC continue. I just reported five recent deaths—two from assaults, two suspected suicides and one likely overdose. And grimly, there’s more to come. Today I talked to the father of a 26-year old man who died at Bullock unexpectedly less than two months from his scheduled release and I’m getting reports as I type this of another suspected overdose inside St. Clair.
I’ve heard Kay Ivey frame the prison crisis as “Alabama’s longstanding prison infrastructure challenge.” That kind of language in the face of such appalling loss makes me wince. I wish our leaders would talk about the human cost of what’s happening, but that would require acknowledging the humanity of people in prison. And that is a bridge too far when your sights are dead set on building more walls and bigger mega-cages.
Thank you for your reporting, which shows Alabama prisons to be the embodiment of Dante's Inferno, stripping the incarcerated of dignity and worth. "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." So tragic.
Very much true Beth.