Latest news with #ADOC
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
The costs of Alabama prison litigation are rising. Private attorneys are reaping the rewards.
A review of data obtained from the state Department of Finance on yearly transactions from the General Liability Trust Fund between 2020 and 2024 found legal expenses associated with defending Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) officers accused of excessive force and failure to protect prisoners from harm or death amounted to $12.9 million, almost triple the settlements paid to inmates or their families. (Alex Cochran for Alabama Reflector) Note: This story contains a discussion of sexual assault. Since 2020, Alabama has paid settlements in at least 124 lawsuits filed against correctional officers in the state's overcrowded and violent prison system. But the legal bills for defending the officers have far outpaced what incarcerated people and their families have received in settlements. A review of data obtained from the state Department of Finance on yearly transactions from the General Liability Trust Fund between 2020 and 2024 found legal expenses associated with defending Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) officers accused of excessive force and failure to protect prisoners from harm or death amounted to $12.9 million. May 19: The Alabama Department of Corrections has settled over 90 lawsuits alleging corrections officers used excessive force, costing the state millions of dollars. May 20: Even as the prison population has declined, use of force incidents in Alabama's prisons and some corrections officers named in lawsuits alleging excessive force have not only held onto jobs, but been promoted. May 21: The anatomy of one inmate's allegations against a corrections officer, and the aftermath. May 22: Who's paying for these settlements? You are. Who's getting the most money from this litigation? . Settlement payments totaled $4.4 million in the same time period. ADOC's total use of the trust fund since 2020 was over $17 million, by far the most of any state agency. 'The General Liability Trust Fund certainly expends more resources for ADOC than any other agency,' Daryl Masters, an assistant attorney general with the Department of Finance, wrote in an email, adding that Alabama's Department of Human Resources, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and the Alabama Department of Public Health follow ADOC in terms of costs. Between these individual complaints, plus defending ADOC in several class-action cases and the U.S. Department of Justice's lawsuit over prison conditions, ADOC has spent over $57 million on legal expenses since 2020. State records on Alabama Checkbook report that the majority of the money comes out of the General Fund. The Attorney General's office represents ADOC, and directs the defense of state employees who are sued on the job. In 2023, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall stripped ADOC's legal staff of its ability to represent ADOC employees in legal matters. The Attorney General's Office did not respond to multiple requests for comment. When ADOC employees are sued, they are now represented either by attorneys from the AG's Office, or increasingly, by private lawyers hired by the AG's Office through contracts that do not require a formal competitive bidding process. The AG's Office must inform the Joint Legislative Contract Review Committee, which meets once a month, about the contracts. The committee can place a 45-day hold on a contract but cannot permanently block or prevent a legal services contract from going through. Some members of the committee have expressed concern over ADOC's increasing use of outside attorneys and the mounting costs of litigation. 'It's fair to ask, how long is this supposed to go on?' said Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa. 'Are we ever going to get out from underneath this stuff? What kind of statement does it make about our prison system that all these cases are filed and we never hear about results?' Attorneys who represent plaintiffs suing officers with the Department of Corrections cannot directly bill the liability trust fund for their legal services. Some represent clients at no charge as pro bono work, or others establish an agreement with the client to collect payment through a percentage of any settlement. Several attorneys who have represented prisoners said the process has become increasingly adversarial as more outside lawyers represent correctional staff and drag litigation out. 'Using outside law firms billing by the hour can make the GLTF (liability trust fund) more of a pot of gold for law firms than a fund to compensate victims,' said Hank Sherrod, who has represented incarcerated people and their families in civil litigation against officers. 'These outside attorneys have every incentive to bill the shit out of the fund and sometimes do, getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and depleting the fund.' The vast majority of lawsuits in this time frame involved claims of excessive force, but cases connected to sexual assaults and deaths from violence have proven much costlier to the department, both in legal expenses and settlement amounts. Some of the wrongful death and failure to protect complaints contain details of horrific assaults. 2019 sexual assault at Bullock Correctional Facility. According to the complaint, the plaintiff was placed in a dorm with a man who had threatened him. The plaintiff said that he informed the warden that he was in danger, and the warden laughed at him. Another officer allegedly told the plaintiff, 'maybe they will kill your retarded cracker ass.' The plaintiff was later dragged to his bunk and raped by the man who had threatened him. He reported the assault and was taken to an outside facility for treatment where the rape was confirmed. ADOC then brought him back to Bullock and placed him in the same dorm with the same assailant, who raped the victim a second time. According to a lawsuit, the victim 'suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, chronic depression, rips and tears in rectum, scars from stabbing, scarred pupil from assault, hearing loss from being kicked in his right ear, chronic pain, flashbacks, embarrassment, blood clots, passing blood clots, nightmares, has been required to undergo surgery and mental health treatment. He continues to fear for his life.' A settlement payment for $10,621.70 in this case was issued in March 2024. 2017 killing of Joseph Wood at St. Clair Correctional Facility two months after he arrived at the prison. The complaint was originally filed by Wood's mother, who wrote that other prisoners were extorting her son inside the prison, and he was afraid officers were involved. 'No one has ever told me who was responsible for killing my son,' she wrote. 'I learned the most about his death after ADOC released the body to me for burial. I saw that he had been beaten, stabbed and strangled. The Department of Corrections failed to protect my son… I would like them to be held accountable for my loss and how they've treated my family.' After five years of litigation, a settlement payment was issued in 2024 for $125,000. Attorneys representing ADOC officers and staff named in the lawsuit collected over $400,000 for their legal work defending the officers. The largest settlement amount from the last five years came from a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the mother of 28-year-old Travis Sessions, who died from bronchopneumonia, or inflammation of the lungs, while incarcerated at Red Eagle Community Work Center in 2018. The complaint stated Sessions was sick for days with worsening symptoms, experiencing shortness of breath and coughing up blood, but at least three officers ignored his requests for help for days, until he was dying. 'He basically drowned in his own blood when Red Eagle personnel refused to get (him) the medical help he needed,' the complaint stated. Attorneys representing the three officers in the lawsuit authorized a $600,000 settlement payment to a lawyer representing the man's family, effectively ending the lawsuit. The family received half of the settlement, and the attorney received the other half. The Sessions litigation lasted over 22 months, with lawyers from the Attorney General's Office representing the named officers. But other complaints that attributed deaths or assaults to prison understaffing led to more protracted litigation and higher legal expenses. He basically drowned in his own blood when Red Eagle personnel refused to get (him) the medical help he needed. – Lawsuit over death of Travis Sessions One such case was filed by the mother of 29-year-old Terry Pettiway, who was stabbed to death by another prisoner at St. Clair Correctional Facility in 2018. Attorneys from two firms, Sidley Austin LLP in New York, and White Arnold & Dowd P.C. in Birmingham, agreed to represent the mother at no charge, and filed the complaint in 2020. According to the complaint, Pettiway was repeatedly stabbed in the back and neck after trying to break up a fight, and 'left to bleed out while the housing block and the common areas around it were effectively left completely unattended by prison staff.' Fellow prisoners attempted CPR but were unsuccessful, according to the complaint. The complaint accused 13 prison officers, supervisors and ADOC commissioners of enabling Pettiway's killing 'by their reckless or intentional failures to take actions to reasonably protect from violence.' The complaint also alleged that on the day of Pettiway's death, a single prison guard was responsible for supervising a general population yard, in use by prisoners from eight separate cell blocks. The guard was unaware of the fight that Pettiway tried to break up, and when Pettiway was stabbed 14 to 17 times, 'the guards were nowhere to be found.' The Attorney General's Office hired private attorneys to defend the ADOC employees in the lawsuit over Pettiway's death. After more than two years of litigation, ADOC settled the case in 2023 for $250,000. But according to Alabama Department of Finance data, the state spent $502,930 on legal bills from two law firms hired to represent the ADOC defendants, Maynard Nexsen PC in Huntsville and Capell & Howard PC in Montgomery. Masters said the state's Division of Risk Management encourages parties to settle a case as early as they can, but that's not always possible. Masters acknowledged that ADOC's use of the trust fund has gone up in recent years, but did not provide details about any actions Risk Management has taken to prevent future complaints in ADOC, saying those discussions would be considered privileged. 'The agencies themselves are the ones who are responsible for dealing with any particular type of claim,' he continued. 'It would be up to them to make some change or do what they could, within the confines of their own responsibilities, to make corrections or changes to cause those numbers to go down.' When asked what, if any, corrective actions have been taken inside the prisons to prevent future complaints, ADOC spokesperson Kelly Betts provided few details. 'It varies depending on the incident,' Betts wrote. 'ADOC follows the corrective action policies listed in the Administrative Regulations.' Alabama's General Liability Trust Fund is a public resource, funded with taxpayer dollars, although not under the same level of scrutiny as the state's General Fund budget. The Alabama Attorney General's Office and the Division of Risk Management make the decisions about how to use the fund, on behalf of the public. Beginning in 2022, ADOC has been required by law to publish active litigation in its quarterly statistical reports. The reports indicate the number of complaints filed against ADOC continues to increase — 199 new lawsuits were filed in 2024, the highest annual number since the agency began publishing the information in 2022. Previous quarterly statistical reports showed 149 new complaints filed in 2023, and 128 in 2022. But the information published in these quarterly reports — name of lawsuit, date filed, case number — tells a limited story. The reports do not include the allegations, the nature of the lawsuits, the names of officers or the extent of the alleged injuries. Another deficient aspect is ADOC's own accounting of legal expenses in these reports. The prison transparency law requires ADOC to include the amount paid to defend litigation against the department, but a review of all available ADOC quarterly statistical reports found no such figures on legal spending. Under costs, the reports include the same entry for every lawsuit— '$0 – all monies paid to defend are paid by the Department of Finance, Division of Risk Management, via the coverage provided to State employees through the General Liability Trust Fund.' What the reports don't say is that ADOC's premiums to participate in the trust fund have tripled in the last decade, from $1.1 million in 2015 to $4.4 million in 2024, according to data provided by the Department of Finance. ADOC's rate increase has occurred while the agency's overall staff has shrunk by 20%. All state agencies pay an annual fee to the trust fund, and this participation rate is determined by the Department of Finance, which bases it on the number of covered employees, and also an evaluation of each agency's use of the fund and number of claims year to year, Masters said. ADOC's rate increase has occurred despite the decrease in staffing in Alabama prisons. The decisions on how to use money from the liability trust fund include whether to settle lawsuits against ADOC officers, for how much, and also the choice to defend officers accused of excessive force, sometimes through years of litigation. Richard Rice, an attorney based in Birmingham who has represented incarcerated people in excessive force lawsuits, questioned the ethics of such decisions when the allegations in the 124 complaints the state has settled are so widespread and damning. 'Are you complicit in perpetuating this type of behavior when it's such an ongoing pattern, and you're defending them at all costs?' he asked. 'Our common values tell us this type of behavior is reprehensible. How do we not have those same common values for prisoners?' This reporting was made possible by support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism. When state employees are sued as individuals, Alabama's General Liability Trust Fund is used to pay for their legal defense and any monetary settlement for the plaintiff. This use of the fund was the subject of our reporting, and records helped us identify 124 lawsuits against Alabama Department of Corrections employees that resulted in settlements between 2020 and 2024. Read more about our strategy. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Yahoo
In wake of excessive force allegations, some corrections officers got promoted
Despite a prison population with 4,000 fewer incarcerated people than a decade ago, uses of force inside Alabama prisons have increased 47% during that time, according to ADOC's own internal data. (Alex Cochran for Alabama Reflector) The account of what happened during a 2018 incident between an incarcerated man and three Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) officers at Donaldson Correctional Facility differs according to the parties involved. But the results are inarguable. The prisoner was rushed to UAB hospital with multiple injuries, including broken ribs, broken vertebrae and a collapsed lung, according to findings by a U.S. magistrate judge. May 19: The Alabama Department of Corrections has settled over 90 lawsuits alleging corrections officers used excessive force, costing the state millions of dollars. May 20: Even as the prison population has declined, use of force incidents in Alabama's prisons and some corrections officers named in lawsuits alleging excessive force involved have not only held onto jobs, but been promoted. May 21: The anatomy of one inmate's allegations against a corrections officer, and the aftermath. May 22: Who's paying for these settlements? You are. Who's getting the most money from this litigation? Attorneys defending corrections officers. The injured man spent three nights in the hospital. In 2020, he sued the three officers for excessive force. The officers didn't deny that they'd used force, but denied that it was excessive. ADOC's internal use of force report about the incident noted that the prisoner weighed 145 pounds, and one of the officers involved — the one who kneeled on the prisoner's back — weighed about 300 pounds. The officers said that the prisoner had refused an order to enter a cell. One officer then sprayed him with a chemical agent called 'Sabre Red.' They said the prisoner then refused to lie down. So another officer 'took him to the floor,' and the prisoner 'continued to resist and engage in combative behavior.' This version of the story was used to justify the 300-pound officer 'forcefully' kneeling on the man's back, sending him to the hospital. The ADOC supervisor who investigated the incident concluded that the use of force was necessary. 'Officers used a minimum amount of force to gain control of the situation,' he wrote in his report. In 2021, U.S. Magistrate Judge Herman N. Johnson determined the evidence could support a finding of excessive force, and wrote the officers' statements 'cannot be reconciled with plaintiff's verified claim that he was already handcuffed and that offers beat him, as assessed in combination with the extent of his injuries.' Lawyers from the Alabama's Attorney General's Office representing the three officers negotiated a settlement of the case for $40,000, one of 94 settlements paid in excessive force claims against ADOC officers since 2020. ADOC would not comment on specific lawsuits against officers. The Alabama Attorney General's Office, which handles litigation involving ADOC, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The consistent details inside the recent surge in complaints against ADOC officers mirror the DOJ's conclusion in 2020 that the state's seeming indifference in addressing and preventing uses of force in its prisons 'fosters a culture where unlawful uses of force are common.' And despite a prison population with 4,000 fewer incarcerated people than a decade ago, uses of force inside the prisons have increased 47% during that time, according to ADOC's own internal data. The highest number of incidents, 2,659 across the entire system, was reported in 2020. Beginning in March 2020, ADOC facilities were locked down because of COVID, with limited movement, and no outside visits or educational programs. ADOC does not report use of force statistics publicly, but the Reflector obtained the data through an open records request. Three maximum-security prisons reported more than 300 use of force incidents, an all-time high, in 2020. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer reported 348. Limestone Correctional Facility in Harvest reported 308, and Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka 329. 'So much of this violence by officers is senseless and unnecessary,' said former ADOC Warden David Wise, who retired from the agency in 2010 after working in the prisons for 28 years. 'There's not a convict in that system that if he refuses an order, that I can't put in a cell without hurting him.' ADOC policy around use of force is governed by an administrative regulation that the agency will not release publicly, but the Reflector obtained a copy. Correctional officers are allowed to use physical force against men and women in Alabama prisons as a means of control. Force can include the use of batons, chemical sprays or electronic devices like tasers, or physical control defined as 'the use of empty-hand techniques to gain control and compliance of resistance and/or combative subject.' The DOJ defines empty-hand techniques as 'takedowns' unlikely to cause injury, and can include strikes or kicks. But DOJ drew a distinction between legal uses of force that may be justified in a prison setting and ADOC's large number of incidents it deemed unjustified under the legal standard. In findings sent to Alabama leaders in July 2020, the DOJ said that excessive force was 'used frequently' in 12 of the state's 13 major correctional facilities for men. The report cited 17 specific incidents, as well as two that ended in deaths. The state has argued the DOJ's lawsuit was based on 'vague and conclusory allegations' and denied the findings. 'An excessive force claim requires allegations plausibly suggesting that officials applied force 'maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm,'' wrote William Lunsford, the lead attorney representing the state in a motion asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit. 'Plaintiff's barebones allegations fall far short of this standard.' Former ADOC Warden Wise said officers are trained to use the minimum force necessary, and could de-escalate almost every situation by just using their voice. 'Ninety percent of the time, that's how I got out of coming to blows with inmates. I talked to them, reasoned with them,' he explained. 'I also let them know real quick that there was no way they were going to win. Usually, if you let him think about that for a minute, he'll do what's right. Every once in a while you come across an inmate acting like Hercules, but that's very rare.' According to ADOC's use of force policy, officers are allowed to use physical force if a prisoner is aggressive, for self-defense, the protection of others and property, to prevent escape, quell a disturbance or 'when an inmate exercises physical resistance to a lawful command.' Wise said that last justification, when an incarcerated person disobeys a lawful command, is where some officers push the bounds of what's legal and necessary. 'Some of them take that to say, 'OK, well you disobeyed my command. I can whoop your ass.' That's not the way it's supposed to go,' he said. 'If they use proper strategy and do what they're taught in the academy, there should be very few incidents and lawsuits.' The largest excessive force settlement paid since 2020 was in a lawsuit filed by the mother of Steven Davis, whose son was beaten to death by a group of officers, including Roderick Gadson, who was promoted to lieutenant after Davis' death. An internal investigation determined the officers' use of force was justified because they said Davis brandished two prison-made weapons and did not comply with their demands to drop the weapons. Some witnesses disputed this account, saying that officers continued to beat Davis after he dropped the weapons. The Alabama Attorney General's Office declined to press criminal charges against the officers and the state never admitted wrongdoing. But attorneys for the officers agreed to a $250,000 settlement in August 2024. Another case with Gadson at the center involved a beating incident in the same cell block of Donaldson prison in which Davis was killed, three months before his death. The victim, who survived, was taken to UAB hospital via ambulance with multiple injuries, including a broken leg and nose, and fractures in his hand that required surgery. Lawyers representing ADOC agreed to settle that case for $10,000. A review of liability trust fund data and court records identified 10 officers at the center of excessive force lawsuits that settled after 2020 who are still working for the agency, according to payment records available in the Open Alabama checkbook database maintained by the Department of Finance. ADOC confirmed employment of the 10 officers as of March 6, 2025. Gadson is one of five officers identified in this review who was promoted after being named in an excessive force lawsuit leading to a large settlement. Messages seeking comment on Gadson were sent to the Alabama Attorney General's Office and Steven Herndon, an attorney who represented Gadson in the Steven Davis civil suit. Attempts to reach Gadson directly were unsuccessful. David Gespass, an attorney who has represented incarcerated people in litigation against ADOC, views the agency's excessive force problem as one in which 'repeater beater' officers are not held accountable, even when these officers are sued repeatedly for harming prisoners. 'They get defended,' Gespass said. 'They don't have to pay for defense. They don't have to pay if there's liability found, so the problem is that ADOC just doesn't do anything about these guys.' They get defended. They don't have to pay for defense. They don't have to pay if there's liability found, so the problem is that ADOC just doesn't do anything about these guys. – David Gespass, attorney In response to the question of what actions ADOC takes when multiple excessive force lawsuits are filed against an officer, ADOC's spokesperson Kelly Betts wrote that the agency keeps a close eye on litigation, and that 'trends are monitored and discussed with the appropriate stakeholders.' She said ADOC investigates all uses of force and if there is a question about whether the force was justified, the case is presented to a 'use of force review board,' which ADOC established in 2024. Betts wouldn't name review board members, but said the board includes all ranks of security staff and meets 'as necessary.' Consequences of the reviews follow 'State Personnel's progressive discipline guidelines' and Betts wrote that cases constituting criminal acts are handled by ADOC's Law Enforcement Services Division and referred to the local district attorney for prosecution. But Betts could not say how many referrals ADOC has made to prosecutors in excessive force cases. 'ADOC does not currently track that data,' she wrote in response to a request for the number of cases sent to the local district attorney since 2020. The 1996 federal Prison Litigation Reform Act or PLRA sought to curtail unnecessary or frivolous prison lawsuits by severely restricting the ability for prisoners to file any claim. It made it much more challenging for incarcerated people to succeed in court, and resulted in a sharp decline in lawsuits filed over prison conditions. Still, prisons are litigious environments. Incarcerated people across the nation file civil rights complaints against officers and prison staff, but 80% of such cases filed in 2021 resulted in a pre-trial decision in favor of the defendants, according to data compiled by University of Michigan Law Professor Margo Schlanger for A lawsuit will typically only reach settlement after passing complicated procedural requirements, and then passing a court's scrutiny to not dismiss the case for lacking a plausible claim. Several attorneys who have represented incarcerated Alabamaians said in the last few years, courts are dismissing fewer excessive force complaints at the preliminary stages because of the extent of the injuries, and because of video evidence from prison surveillance cameras. Betts said settling a case is not an admission of wrongdoing. 'Cases may settle for a multitude of reasons, the most common one being the cost of continued litigation and/or trial,' Betts wrote in an email response to questions about the record number of excessive force settlements. 'Often, a settlement is reached to save taxpayer money. It's usually cheaper to settle than it is to take a case all the way to trial.' But former ADOC Warden Wise said the record number of excessive force cases resulting in paid settlements should be a red flag to leaders in Montgomery. 'You should have enough confidence to be able to, even when there is a lawsuit, defend it, not settle it,' Wise said. 'And the system needs that money, not for lawsuits, it needs that money to make it better.' This reporting was made possible by support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism. When state employees are sued as individuals, Alabama's General Liability Trust Fund is used to pay for their legal defense and any monetary settlement for the plaintiff. This use of the fund was the subject of our reporting, and records helped us identify 124 lawsuits against Alabama Department of Corrections employees that resulted in settlements between 2020 and 2024. Read more about our strategy. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Yahoo
Marine unit conducts ‘first of its kind' exercise to sense and target
The Marines' Pacific-based information group conducted a 'first of its kind' training operation to extend communications, reconnaissance and targeting across wide swaths of the region. The III Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group recently completed Exercise Kaiju Rain 25 on May 12. The exercise combined joint, interagency and allied partners with a focus on cyber operations, electronic warfare and multi-domain sensing for distributed operations, according to a Marine Corps release. 'Each of the battalions encompasses a warfighting capability within information,' said Col. Joshua Mayoral, commanding officer of III MIG. 'Bringing the capabilities together as a III MIG team, as an information combat element, projects the aggregated and integrated C5ISRT and counter-C5ISRT capability that enables joint and coalition command and control (C2) and kill webs, and long-range precision fires.' Marines used the All Domain Operations Center, which served as III MIG's central hub for analyzing and synthesizing information gathered across their area of operations. Battalions collected data and signals through sensing, surveillance and electronic warfare. Those were then passed to the ADOC, where they were fused into a coherent operational picture, according to the release. This method of centralized processing allowed for faster decision-making and enabled the command elements to coordinate effects across domains in support of distributed operations. 'Kaiju Rain 25 is the first of its kind rehearsal led by III MEF Information Group to test and refine Marine Corps communications, sensing and coordination capabilities across all domains, to include sea, land, air and cyberspace,' said Gunnery Sgt. Andrew Ogletree, the ADOC Cognitive Cell chief. The 3rd Intelligence Battalion handled sensing and conducted sensor fusion to support targeting operations, according to the release. That allowed for the development of the kill web by integrating multi-domain intelligence for timely, precise engagements. 'We are able to operate in any environment — whether it's austere or more developed. With all of our equipment being man-packable, we are able to go to any point on the globe,' said Cpl. Aidan Henson, the Maritime Support Team lead with 3rd Intelligence Battalion. Sending the MEF to war: Why East Coast Marines are focusing on MEF-level warfighting The 3rd Radio Battalion provided signals intelligence and electronic warfare capabilities to send data to the ADOC, which enabled enhanced sensing, targeting and operational decision-making. Marines used the battalion's Automated Parachute System for insert and extract missions, reinforcing their role in enabling rapid, responsive operations. 'On the ground level, we are the ones receiving those signals, doing that collection and analysis, and as intel becomes more and more important, it's passed along to those at III MIG that really need it,' said Cpl. Michael Redding, a signals intelligence and electronic warfare team lead with 3rd Radio Battalion. The 5th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company enabled cross-domain fires through forward-deployed, sensor-enabled Marines. One such example was their small drone team, which enhanced precision targeting and kill chain integration. The same unit concurrently participated in multiple war-fighting functions through its unit-level exercises, Katana Strike and Ryukyu Hammer. The 7th Communication Battalion 'established expeditionary command and control nodes and delivered resilient mobile communications in support of Kaiju Rain 25,' the Marine Corps release said. That work helped integrate communications, intelligence, command and control and targeting capabilities across the battlespace. The battalion also conducted unit-level training as part of Triad Thunder. 'We are in an information age, and right now with modern technology, information is one of the fastest moving things on Earth,' said Ogletree. 'Whoever controls the flow of information will control the fight.'
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Yahoo
How we reported 'Blood Money'
Barbed wire seen behind a fence at an Alabama reporting the "Blood Money" series, reporter Beth Shelburne obtained documents and data from the Alabama Department of Corrections and the Alabama Department of Finance to find stories that might otherwise go untold. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) The crisis inside the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) has generated extensive reporting on escalating prison violence and deaths, the proliferation of contraband drugs, and squalid conditions inside overcrowded and understaffed facilities. These factors led the U.S. Department of Justice to conclude Alabama prison conditions violate prisoners' Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment, leading to a lawsuit in 2020. Since then, the state of Alabama has spent over $39 million defending ADOC in a handful of complex lawsuits, including the one filed by the DOJ. But these cases represent only a fraction of litigation involving ADOC. During the last decade, an increasing number of individual civil rights lawsuits have been filed against correctional officers and prison administrators over wrongful deaths, failure to protect from violence and excessive force. Unlike the DOJ lawsuit or other large class-action lawsuits, individual lawsuits filed by incarcerated people or their families receive little attention or oversight. These individual lawsuits were the focus of the reporting for this series. We wanted to figure out just how many lawsuits were being litigated against employees of ADOC every year, and learn more about the nature of the lawsuits, the outcomes, and the cost to taxpayers. Just how much public money was ADOC spending on these lawsuits, not just in settlements to plaintiffs, but paying private lawyers to defend sued officers? And beyond settlement payments, was any systemic change resulting from these lawsuits? First, we had to recognize an important distinction in how Alabama pays for legal services. When an entire state agency is named in a lawsuit, like in the DOJ's lawsuit against ADOC, legal services are paid for out of Alabama's General Fund budget. But when state employees are sued as individuals, the General Liability Trust Fund (GLTF) is used to pay for their legal defense and any monetary settlement for the plaintiff. This use of the GLTF was the subject of our reporting. We filed an open records request with Alabama's Department of Finance, asking for a spreadsheet of records connected to all transactions out of the GLTF, as well as total yearly use of the fund by ADOC dating back to 2013. In the spreadsheet, transactions were categorized as either legal expenses or indemnity payments, also known as settlement payments. The transaction records included corresponding case names and numbers, which allowed us to connect each transaction to specific lawsuits. We then located the lawsuits in federal court records, and through reviewing the records, were able to pinpoint lawsuits involving ADOC employees. This is how we identified the 124 lawsuits against ADOC employees that resulted in settlements between 2020-2024. The 124 lawsuits ending in settlement in this five-year period gave us a fixed group of cases to study, not only to help identify issues and trends in the allegations, but also in the amount of time and money spent on the litigation. Through this project, we aimed to increase transparency and accountability regarding ADOC's increasing use of public resources and taxpayer dollars. And in an effort to deepen our understanding of the crisis inside Alabama prisons, we also wanted to report on the lawsuits themselves, and the human beings involved, to lessen the abstractions of incarceration and illuminate what would otherwise remain unseen, unheard and unknown.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Yahoo
Report: At least 277 people died in Alabama prisons in 2024
A pair of handcuffs poking through prison bars. A report from the ACLU of Alabama released Wednesday estimated that at least 277 people died in Alabama prisons in 2024, but said the number could be higher. (File/Getty) A report published Wednesday by the ACLU of Alabama estimated at least 277 people died in Alabama prisons last year. That number matches the figure provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections and is lower than the 325 deaths tabulated by Alabama Appleseed in 2023, but the number of deaths has yet to meaningfully decline in the past few years despite efforts by the ADOC to secure the population and prevent corrections officers from transporting contraband into the facilities. 'It is high,' said Eddie Burkhalter, a researcher for Alabama Appleseed, a nonprofit that advocates for criminal justice reform. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX A message was sent to the Alabama Department of Corrections on Wednesday seeking comment. The ACLU said in the report that the number is likely higher because the ADOC has failed to maintain accurate records. 'While the raw number was larger (325) in fiscal year 2023, we are not seeing dramatic improvements by any means in Alabama's prisons,' said Alison Mollman in an interview Wednesday, interim legal director of the ACLU of Alabama. The report said the largest number of deaths (46) were the result of accidental deaths or overdoses. The report cites corrections officers as a contributing factor for the number of deaths, particularly the deaths of overdose. 'In 2019, ADOC's own staff members reported to the DOJ that 'without a doubt' the number one way contraband is getting into prisons is by staff smuggling it in,' the report states, adding that the problem remains despite 'continued notice of the central role staff play in trafficking drugs into ADOC facilities.' The overdose number will likely be revised upward because 105 people died in prison whose cause is unknown, or the cases are still under investigation. 'It is really overdoses that are driving these death numbers,' said Burkhalter, who researches prison deaths. 'Drugs continue to come in the prisons, largely in part because of officers who bring them in and staff who bring them in.' Another 77 people died because of natural causes, though the specific causes are not known. The report estimated that there were at least 36 deaths in Kilby Correctional Facility In Montgomery; 35 deaths at St. Clair Correctional Facility in Saint Clair County; 34 deaths at Limestone Correctional Facility in Limestone County and 26 deaths at Bullock Correctional Facility in Union Springs. The four combined accounted for nearly half of all the deaths (47%) that occurred in 2024. ACLU also cited racial disparities in the report. While 26% of the population in Alabama is Black, Black Alabamians comprise almost 60% of the state's prison population and account for an equal number of the deaths that happened in 2024. 'Alabama's prisons are sites of torture,' said Allison Mollman, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama. 'When people are convicted and sentenced to prison, their punishment is to be taken away from their families and communities. But the punishment they experience from the state of Alabama is widespread drug use, constant violence, both at the hands of other prisoners and staff, and widespread misconduct.' People incarcerated in Alabama's prisons continue to face deadly and dangerous conditions more than four years after the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit and publicized scathing findings about the conditions in some of the facilities. A team of researchers from both the state and national ACLU offices compiled data from publicly available sources, including news articles and obituaries, as well as state and federal court records and reports by nonprofits and academic papers. They also obtained information by filing records requests with government agencies and taking numbers posted on the Corrections Department's website. The report recommends improved tracking of deaths and study of the factors leading to them. 'To understand and respond to the problem, we have to understand the breadth of the problem, so it is our position that the first step, and an easy step for DOC to take, is to increase the transparency, the frequency, at which it is giving the public information,' Mollman said. Other recommendations include updating the categories that indicate the manner of death, require autopsies for every person who dies while in the Department's custody and provide an annual report on the deaths that happened for the year. Mollman also said the ADOC needs to change the culture within the department by changing the leadership at the warden level. Current practice is that wardens obtain their post by working up the ranks of the department, starting as corrections officers. Other states have hired people as wardens who come from different backgrounds, such as social workers. 'Punishment is where the Department of Corrections is focused on, keeping people in segregation, locking them down in their cells, keeping them in dorms without air conditioning and without supervision,' Mollman said. 'If we can move from a system to focus on rehabilitation truly, that has the programming, has the incentives for incarcerated people to do well, if we have a parole system that responds to that by granting people parole who are doing well in prison, those are the types of things that change culture and improve conditions and reduce levels of violence.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
