New Appleseed Report

Newest Updates

May 5, 2026/by Carla Crowder

April 2026: News and Updates

Hello from Alabama Appleseed! Our April newsletter contains your…

April 26, 2026/by Carla Crowder

Chapter 4: The Process of Healing

April 23, 2026/by Carla Crowder

Chapter 3: The process of mourning

April 20, 2026/by Carla Crowder

Appleseed Post-Session Briefing: Two good bills passed, a prison oversight pilot created, and renewed optimism for continued prison reform in Alabama

April 20, 2026/by Carla Crowder

Chapter 2: The Process of Grieving

Alabama Appleseed works to improve the justice system on behalf of all Alabamians. We seek justice for individuals by providing post-conviction and parole representation for people serving extreme sentences under outdated laws, and we advocate for common-sense reforms to address the unfairness, waste, and corruption that have turned Alabama’s prison system into one of the worst in the United States.

Appleseed creates change through research, coalition building, policy advocacy and legal services. Our issue areas:

Economic justice and the criminalization of poverty

Mass incarceration and Alabama’s chronically unconstitutional prisons

Racial justice and systemic racism in laws and policies

Unaccountable government and policing for profit

Providing Second Chances. Changing Systems.

Alabama’s prison system is overwhelmed and often unjust, and many people are serving extreme sentences under outdated laws without fair access to legal help.

We exist to make sure people are seen, heard, and represented. Through post-conviction and parole advocacy, we fight for second chances and for a system that treats families with dignity and respect. We believe justice should include mercy, fairness, and hope.

Let’s invest in people, not prisons. Let’s fight poverty, not create it. Let’s achieve justice and equity for all Alabamians.

Transformative change is possible in Alabama. Here’s how we do it.

Solutions and advocacy at the Alabama Legislature

Recent statewide policy reforms include:

SB254/HB437 providing immediate parole hearings to individuals revoked for new charges that do not result in conviction and increasing discretion for revocations. PASSED in 2026.
SB322 creating a family services unit and more accountability at the Alabama Department of Corrections. Families with incarcerated loved ones now have staff dedicated to meeting their needs. PASSED IN 2024.
SB154 ending Alabama’s practice of automatically suspending people’s driver’s licenses for missing a single payment or court hearing. This law makes life easier for more than 170,000 Alabamians who had their license suspended for debt-related reasons. PASSED IN 2023.
HB95 giving people leaving prison a grace period of 180 days post-release before they must begin to pay back court-imposed fines and fees. Alabama is now the second southern state with such a law. PASSED IN 2022.

Freedom for Alabamians trapped by excessive sentences

We have won the release of dozens of individuals sentenced to die in prison for crimes where no one was physically injured, including Alvin Kennard, Ronald McKeithen, Motis Wright, Alonzo Hurth, Michael Schumacher, Joe Bennett, Robert Cheeks, Willie Ingram, Lee Davis, Larry Garrett, John Coleman, Bruce Pearson, Ronnie Peoples, James “Honkytonk” Jones, Johnny Crawford, Jerry Boatwright and Carl Green.
We have won parole grants for numerous clients serving life sentences and assisted others in obtaining pardons, including Bennie Haggins.
To ensure they succeed, our re-entry program provides housing support, case management, employment assistance, and peer support to people who have spent decades in prison. Our clients range in age from 43 to 92. They are truck drivers, auto workers, grandfathers, church volunteers, and artists. Combined, they spent more than 1,000 years incarcerated.

Sweeping change at the local level

Appleseed partnered with the Jefferson County District Attorneys Office to launch Reset, an innovative diversion program that diverts people out of jails and prisons with a proportionate, effective, and meaningful response to low-level offending. Reset has now served more than 100 people, creating a path out of the justice system.
Appleseed helped launch the Birmingham Re-entry Alliance, an innovative partnership of nonprofit and faith groups alongside the office of Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, to provide holistic re-entry services to people returning to Birmingham from Alabama prisons. Now in its second year, the Alliance has added new partners, new services, and new hope to people returning to the uncertainty of life after incarceration.

Listening to Alabamians impacted by harsh laws and broken systems

Appleseed’s research and advocacy staff relies on surveys and narratives of Alabamians directly impacted by the broken systems we are striving to reform. We correspond with hundreds of incarcerated people and their families, lift up their stories, and connect them with advocacy opportunities and elected officials.
We know that many survivors of crime are not being served by current responses to violence. Alongside survivors, we are working toward solutions that repair rather than perpetuate harm, as presented in our Afterward report.