DOJ seeks summary judgment finding Alabama failed to protect prisoners

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Federal prosecutors submitted a request Wednesday for a summary judgment against the State of Alabama and the Alabama Department of Corrections.

A trial is scheduled for November over whether the ADOC violated inmates’ Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

The 260-page motion is filled with dozens of pages that are fully-redacted from public view.

In the filing, the Department of Justice alleges “not only do ADOC’s supervisors fail to prevent and address excessive force, but they also use excessive force themselves.”

The federal government cites ADOC staffing numbers, including a ratio of 17.4 prisoners per correctional officer, versus the authorized ratio of 5.2 prisoners per correctional officer.

There are also reports that a warden provided prisoners with a radio so they could call for help because there were often no officers present.

While the names in the report are redacted, the filing lists out 78 prisoner-on-prisoner homicides from 2019 to 2024 that occurred in men’s prisons across the state, including in Bibb, Bullock, Donaldson, Easterling, Elmore, Fountain, Holman, Kilby, Limestone, St. Clair, Staton and Ventress facilities.

The filing details a connection between an understaffing of ADOC facilities and the prevalence of prisoner-on-prisoner violence and sexual violence.

The motion provided screenshots of text messages allegedly sent by people incarcerated in an ADOC facility extorting family members of other inmates by threatening to carry out violent attacks on the incarcerated relative.

A prisoner testified that it took him a week to report that he was sexually assaulted because other prisons would not let him out of the dorm. The filing alleges that “drugs play a significant role in the proliferation of sexual abuse in Alabama prisoners, with prisoners getting into debt and being forced to perform sexual acts.”

However, the motion alleges that ADOC leadership has limited understanding of standard operating procedures or the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), alleging that “despite the increase in allegations and policy that investigators should use a preponderance of the evidence standard, Alabama uses a probable cause standard and substantiates few cases.”

Requests for comment and/or interview were left with the Alabama Department of Corrections Thursday.

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