Entries by Carla Crowder

The Alabama Department of Corrections is desperate for officers and fired hundreds in recent years 

By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher Alabama’s prison staffing crisis has an outsized role in the violence and record number of deaths seen across the state’s prisons, most everyone agrees. New data obtained by Appleseed shows yet another reason prison staffing remains dangerously low: the large number of terminated prison employees – 366 Department of Corrections […]

Birmingham Re-entry Alliance is hiring a Case Manager

The Birmingham Re-entry Alliance is an innovative, collaborative reentry support and case management system for individuals returning to Birmingham following incarceration in state prison. Our network will combine the necessary services for some of Alabama’s most marginalized people – indigent, formerly incarcerated people with felony records – to thrive following incarceration. The organizations involved have […]

Welcome to JD/MD Intern Alana C. Nichols

My name is Alana C. Nichols and it is with immense excitement and gratitude that I announce an internship with Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.  I am currently a third year Internal Medicine and Pediatrics resident at University of Alabama at Birmingham.  Additionally, I hold a juris doctorate from Georgia State University College […]

Appleseed’s 2024 Legislative Agenda: Second Chances, Prison Oversight, and Reentry Housing

by Elaine Burdeshaw, Policy Associate It’s no secret that Alabama is facing serious problems in our prisons and criminal justice system. In 2023 alone, 325 people died in Alabama Department of Corrections custody– making our prison mortality rate the highest in the nation and five times the national average. We face outdated laws and excessive […]

Record Loss of Life in 2023 Pushes ADOC’s Death Total Over 1,000 Since DOJ Put State on Notice

by Eddie Burkhalter, Researcher Alabama prisons in 2023 saw record high deaths for a second straight year, a grim reminder that the Alabama Department of Corrections is incapable of protecting incarcerated people from drugs, violence and death. Last year, 325 people died in Alabama prisons, the Alabama Department of Corrections confirmed for Appleseed. This total […]

Alabama families and lawmakers seek answers from ADOC officials as prison violence and deaths persist. ADOC’s response: “There’s two sides to every story.”

By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher Just 22 days after friends of Klifton Adam Bond’s family spoke to the Legislative Joint Prison Oversight Committee about Bond’s injuries following a severe beating, Mr. Bond was found dead in his cell at St. Clair Correctional Facility.  For lawmakers who listened to those pleas for help, the death of […]

With prison officials absent, Alabama families plead with legislative prison oversight committee to stop the torture and death across the Department of Corrections

Speakers ranged from a teenager whose father was brutally killed to a retired lawyer whose father tried to reform Alabama’s prisons 40 years ago. By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher For just over three minutes, 17-year-old MaKayla Mount stood before members of the Legislative Joint Prison Oversight Committee and told the story of her father’s brutal […]

New Justice Department Report Shows Incarceration Has Increased in Alabama, With No Evidence of Public Safety Benefits

By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Researcher Alabama’s incarceration rate is again on the rise, outpacing most other states, nearly four years after the federal government sued the state over unconstitutional conditions in its dangerous, understaffed prisons.   Alabama had the 12th highest rate of increase in the number of people incarcerated in state prisons between 2021 and […]

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For Jerry Boatwright, freedom is a hammer, a paintbrush, and a chance to take care of his family after 3 decades in prison

By Carla Crowder, Executive Director and Scott Fuqua, Staff Attorney Jerry Boatwright spent 34 years in an Alabama prison for a burglary conviction. He was supposed to die there. Instead, he’s home just in time to become the primary caregiver for his ailing brother, Randy. Jerry, 64, has always been a hard worker. At Holman […]