The year was 1972 when the prisoners being confined by the Alabama Department of Corrections filed a class action lawsuit against the State of Alabama alleging violations of the Eighth and Fourteen Amendments. The Eighth Amendment protects against the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment and the Fourteenth Amendment includes the requirements for due process to be followed in legal actions taken against citizens of the United States. There were three significant cases filed in the Federal Middle District; Newman v. Alabama, Pugh v. Locke: and James v. Wallace. Each of these suits focused on conditions in the prisons that violated the U.S. Constitution. Included in the cases were issues such as overcrowding, classification and placement, assault and abuse of inmate on inmate, sanitation problems, staffing (number, training, qualifications, pay), suicide prevention, medical and mental care. Each of these cases was granted class action status and included all inmates, female and male, incarcerated in the state’s prison system. It is interesting to note that in open court the attorneys for the state agreed that they were in violation of the Constitution by inflicting cruel and unusual punishment within the prisons. Each of these cases was closed in the 1980’s with the Pugh v. Locke case having a closing date of 1988. The Chief Judge of the Middle District of Alabama was Frank M. Johnson, Jr., and his rulings in these cases were upheld by the Fifth and Eleventh Court of Appeals as well as by the Supreme Court of the United States. Let me point out that one of the hallmarks of the rulings made by Judge Johnson were the thoroughness in providing specific remedies to be followed by the defendants. His decisions in the prison cases followed this pattern and the state was specifically mandated to address each of the issues identified in the suits.
The above background is provided as a backdrop for fast-forwarding to the present time. There has been a great deal of attention given to the inadequacies of the prison system in Alabama in recent years. Once again, the Federal Court is making specific rulings about what must be done to comply with the court’s directives. Judge Myron Thompson is the current Chief Judge of the Middle District of Alabama and he is following the trail laid down by Judge Johnson. The state, as was true back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, is being forced to make changes or the Federal Government will, once again, take the necessary steps to effect change. The most significant action could be the Federal Government taking control of the state’s prisons.
There is a myriad of issues that mirror the earlier cases. One of the most telling statistic is the number of suicides that have occurred within the prisons. As of this writing there have been 15 since December 2017, and 13 in the last 14 months. The spike in suicides in Alabama is four times the national average. Judge Thompson has mandated that the Department of Corrections make improvements and called the prisons’ mental health systems “horrendously inadequate”. The abuse of the use of solitary confinement has been a major contributing factor in the number of suicides. The absence of significant mental health professionals providing treatment has been an additional factor.
A report of the U. S. Department of Justice alleged that the men’s prisons were in violation of the Constitution because of the level of violence, rape, weapons, extortion, and other problems. An article in the Alabama Political Reporter, written by one of their reporters, Josh Moon, described a man he met, a white, middle-aged businessman, who was to serve a two-year sentence for some illegal business deals. In his first year he lost 80 pounds, was held for ransom, had his back broken, was stabbed and would have been murdered if not for the aid of another inmate. He was also repeatedly denied prescribed necessary medication by guards and prison officials. No mystery as to why prisoners are killing themselves. The incidents of abuse by inmates and guards are legion and story after story could be told.
The issues, included in the Department of Justice’s report, fall into five main categories: hiring more correctional staff (guards); pardons and paroles reforms; internal problems such as sexual abuse, suicides, and violence; prison construction; and, sentencing reform. Indeed, much needs to be done. A danger is that those in control of the decisions will look to building more prisons as the answer. The previous Governor, Robert Bentley, laid out a very ambitious plan for the construction of new prisons. He proclaimed this as the primary answer to the problems with the prison system. However, building newer, more humane, prisons as replacements for the existing “hell-holes” housing both male and female inmates is much-needed.
There is a need for more, better trained and qualified staff in all the prisons in the state. Coupled with the need for more is the need to adjust wages to a level that attracts those who are committed to making a difference. Keeping wages at a paltry level will lead to “getting what you paid for”. The sentencing practices in the state are abysmal. The habitual offender law needs to be modified to deal with the most serious of offenders and not the addicted person who got caught three times, thereby being sentenced for life. Yes, there are approaches to sentencing that have and do work such as treating addiction as a disease, not a crime, and allowing individuals to enter rehabilitation programs, rather than being sent to prisons. Alternative sentencing does work. Home detention, electronic monitoring, and community-based corrections are examples of alternatives that have been successful.
The housing of inmates also requires significant modification. Inappropriate classification and placement can be a detriment to an individual’s motivation to improve and work on issues that led to his/her incarceration. More humane and credible supervision of inmates always must be a priority. Such supervision pertains to monitoring inmates in the yard, in work assignments, movement from one place to another, and making sure that a limited number of inmates are showering at one time. Many of the rapes occur in the shower. The managerial and supervisory staff must be held accountable and questionable practices must stop. An example of a questionable practice is the shackling of inmates to buckets in the Limestone Correctional Facility. Those who are shackled must defecate six times in the bucket to have their restraints removed. This is an unbelievable, inhumane, and unacceptable practice and the warden of that facility should be removed. A practice of this nature cannot be tolerated.
During his visit to American, in the 1830’s, Alexis de Tocqueville, and a colleague, conducted a study of the American penal system and Tocqueville is reported to have stated that American prisons were schools of crime. He also stated that the level of a society’s morality can be determined by how they treat their prisoners. In Alabama, we have not come very far from those days when the animals in the field were treated better than those put into the state’s prisons.
What has been put forth should not be construed as an attempt to suggest we coddle those who have been convicted of violating a law of society. What I have attempted to do was to provide a brief historical context for what the state is currently experiencing. Action must and will be taken, one way or the other. If the state continues to delay in responding to the court, then they will come under the control of the Federal Government. Literally, the clock is ticking and those in positions of leadership and power in the state will be required to do more than talk. There is a reason the Founding Fathers included the Eighth Amendment in the Bill of Rights. We cannot engage in or support ongoing cruel and unusual punishment of those in the state’s custody.