Alabama prisons are racist death traps

At least seven people living in custody at an Alabama Department of Corrections state prison have been killed since January.

There have been at least 15 preventable deaths — suicides, overdoses and homicides — in Alabama prisons so far this year.

A corrections department spokesperson confirmed that Terry Jones, 46, died on March 1 after being attacked by another incarcerated man with a weapon.

Trey Norwood, 28, was found unresponsive by staff at Ventress Correctional Facility in Clayton on May 17 and was pronounced dead. His exact cause of death is pending an autopsy, but the Alabama Department of Corrections said foul play is not suspected.

Confirming that Earnest Charles McReynolds, 69, died on May 10 at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility, the department said, “While McReynolds’s exact cause of death is pending the results of a full autopsy, it appears that he passed away due to complications related to a terminal illness.”

In Alabama, the incarcerated population has skyrocketed since 1980, growing five-fold as of 2017. This growth is forcing state-run prisons to operate at 164% capacity, which ranks as the most overcrowded prisons in the country.

Most of the people in Alabama county jails have never been convicted of a crime — more than 70% are awaiting trial.

In addition to the rate of incarceration, which ranks third nationally in the rate of people imprisoned, Alabama also has around half of people in Alabama’s prisons serving a sentence of 20 years or more.

One out of every three Black boys born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as can one of every six Latino boys, compared to one of every 17 white boys. At the same time, women are the fastest-growing incarcerated population in the United States, and Alabama ranks sixth nationally for the rate of women imprisoned.

Alabama’s prison system costs taxpayers $478 million of its general fund on corrections in 2016, which is a 126% increase since 1985. This money should be spent building up, not further harming our communities. Investment, not incarceration, is how we improve safety.

About one year ago, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an amended complaint to its December 2020 lawsuit against the state of Alabama and Alabama Department of Corrections, which alleged violations of inmates’ constitutional rights to protection from prisoner-on-prisoner violence, sexual abuse and excessive force by prison guards.