Alabama Prisoner Strike Highlights a System in Disarray

Conditions in Alabama correctional facilities violate Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment, according to the Department of Justice, which took the rare step in 2020 of suing the state for failing to protect the people in its custody. People incarcerated in Alabama face excessive force from correctional officers, a high risk of death, physical violence and sexual abuse from other prisoners and are forced to live in unsafe and unsanitary conditions, DOJ wrote in its complaint.

Because of the incarcerated persons exception to the 13th amendment which prohibited slavery, people in prison are paid almost nothing for their labor. Alabama is one of several states that does not pay it's incarcerated workers for most prison jobs. Yet incarcerated labor is fundamental to a functioning prison, where the incarcerated prepare meals, do laundry, complete general facility maintenance and even build office furniture that the state sells for a profit to private entities.

Five days after Alabama prisoners launched the statewide labor strike, Governor Kay Ivey assured reporters that the head of the state’s corrections department had things "well under control.” But images and interviews from inside the state’s prisons show a system in disarray, with deteriorating conditions, pervasive violence, multiple deaths and little oversight from staff.

As of now, most of the inmates have returned to work. Five of the 15 major Alabama Department of Corrections facilities are still experiencing total inmate worker stoppages. Regardless of the status of the inmate work stoppage, unsafe and unlivable conditions remain. Prison administrators said they had to cut back food rations from three meals a day to two, which prisoners saw as retaliation, but officials blamed on the fact that meals are generally prepared by the incarcerated workers themselves. Guards stopped letting people out for visiting, recreation or school.

The general failure of appropriate supervision led to an inmate-on-inmate stabbing death which was filmed by prisoners. The Alabama Department of Corrections did not dispute the authenticity of the videos, and confirmed that 30-year-old Denarieya Smith was killed Saturday at the Donaldson Correctional Facility in an “inmate-on-inmate assault involving a weapon,” which officials are investigating. The department cited security concerns and refused to answer questions about whether the unit is understaffed.

How long the inmate work stoppage goes on remains to be seen, but incarcerated persons and advocate want everyone to remember the conditions and circumstances that led to the stoppage will remain unless ADOC and the State of Alabama is held fully accountable for their failure in providing the bare minimum of safe living conditions.

You can read a detailed report of the ongoing incarcerated persons' strike "Alabama Said Prison Strike Was ‘Under Control.’ Footage Shows System in Deadly Disarray" at the Marshall Project.