Prison Labor - Alabama Inmate Protest Leads to Work Stoppages

Incarcerated persons inside major correctional facilities throughout Alabama organized a worker strike Monday to demand changes to the state's sentencing laws and parole system. According to Alabama Department of Corrections staff working inside Limestone Correctional Facility in Harvest AL, inmates refused to show up for work details inside the kitchen, and "brown bag meals" were delivered to the facility Monday morning.

According to those sources, who asked not to be identified fearing retaliation from supervisors, the bagged meals were made by inmates at the nearby Decatur work release facility. ADOC officials would not confirm those details. Images of meals containing a single piece of bread, a small amount of applesauce and a pint of milk were posted to social media, allegedly taken and shared by state prison inmates.

Outside the prison walls, inmate advocates held their own protests in solidarity. At the "Break Every Chain Rally," a few dozen protesters gathered Monday morning in Montgomery, where they said they protested throughout the day, then  hold a vigil for the inmates who are "suffering violations to their civil rights due to overcrowding and mental and physical abuse," according to one advocate. 

“The state of Alabama is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis due to Eighth Amendment violations. This crisis has occurred as a result of antiquated sentencing laws that led to overcrowding, numerous deaths, severe physical injury, as well as mental anguish to incarcerated individuals,” the protest’s organizers wrote on a flyer delivered to the ADOC office. “This humanitarian crisis led to the Department of Justice filing suit against (Gov.) Kay Ivey and ADOC yet, nothing has changed or gotten better only worse.” Alabama is currently under a federal judge's order to hire thousands of new correctional officers and improve conditions inside the prisons.

Protest organizers are calling for lawmakers to make the following changes:

• Repeal the habitual offender law, which requires longer sentences for people convicted of multiple crimes, including life sentences for those convicted of a Class A felony after three previous felony convictions 
• Make the "presumptive standards" retroactive immediately
• Repeal the drive-by shooting statute, which allows prosecutors to charge someone with capital murder if they are in a vehicle when they fatally shoot a victim
• Create a statewide conviction integrity unit to investigate possible cases of wrongful incarceration
• Create mandatory parole criteria that will guarantee parole to all eligible persons
• Streamline the review processes for medical furloughs and early release of elderly inmates
• Allow juvenile offenders to become eligible for parole after 15 years served, instead of the current 30-year requirement
• Get rid of life sentencing without the chance of parole

Alabama’s prison system, plagued by violence, sexual assault, drug use and death and suffering from severe understaffing and overcrowding, was deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2020.