AL Political Reporter: “A federal judge in a 600-page opinion Monday gave the Alabama Department of Corrections until 2025 to boost correctional officer hiring, calling the state’s prisons so understaffed that security checks are lax, prisoners receive little or no time outside of cells and those with mental illnesses continue to
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson wrote in his opinion that in the four years since his 2017 ruling, in which he found Alabama prisons were in violation of constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment for those with mental illnesses, at least 27 more men have died by suicide in Alabama prisons.
“The common thread among these tragedies is ADOC’s lack of correctional staff,” the opinion reads, noting that in the four years since the court issued its previous opinion the staffing shortages remain “nearly unchanged…”
Thompsons opinion states that because of inadequate prison staffing incarcerated men in Alabama are left to fend for themselves “in the culture of violence, easy access to drugs, and extortion that has taken root in ADOC facilities in the absence of an adequate security presence.”
Thompsons opinion states that ADOC fails to adequately conduct mental health screenings for incoming prisoners, and even when mental health needs were properly identified “referrals for additional follow-up were routinely ignored, leaving inmates without the treatment they needed.””