Maeve Higgins: Society averts eyes from 'living death sentence' of prison inmates in Alabama

Many people who have not even committed a crime that caused anyone any physical injury are serving the same sentence as the Parkland shooter who murdered 17 people and injured 17 more in a Florida school in 2018

'The dominant narrative that’s developed in the US around crime and incarceration is that people who are in prison deserve to be there, deserve to be there forever, and deserve whatever happens to them while they’re there.’

IN Alabama, men in prison look after the dying. They care for their fellow prisoners, the elderly and sick, who are living out their final days in hospice behind bars. Inmates cook and serve all the meals, maintain the buildings, and do the laundry. 

As well as keeping prisons running, many inmates have jobs in large manufacturing plants where they make various items, from license plates to furniture. Some take part in work-release programs in hotels and restaurants or as roadside crews who pick up trash and trim the grass along the state’s highways. 

They are either unpaid or paid between $10 and $25 per month, usually closer to $10. The inmates must do all this while living in one of the most dangerous places in America. 

For years now, Alabama inmates have been at high risk of being attacked, raped, and even murdered by other inmates, and are regularly abused and neglected by prison staff. Conditions are so bad that the Department of Justice found them unconstitutional and, in 2020, filed a lawsuit against the State and the Alabama Department of Corrections.

Very little changed until last month, when the inmates organised a statewide work stoppage.

“You’re not only punished by living in overcrowded, dilapidated, very violent conditions but you’re expected to work to support this completely unfair, oppressive system,” says Carla Crowder, a human rights attorney and director of the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice to explain the backdrop of this extraordinary work stoppage in Alabama prisons, now entering its third week. 

A 'No talking to inmates' sign on a fence in front of Perry County Jail in downtown Marion, Alabama. 

She is impressed by the dedication of the inmates, saying: “This work stoppage shows that you have incarcerated people who are organised; they’re capable, strategic, and smart. And they’re doing something peacefully that has gotten the attention of the governor of Alabama.”

The Republican governor, Kay Ivey, is to the extreme right in US politics, so it’s perhaps no surprise that she presides over such a dehumanising and hellish prison system. During the first week of the work stoppage, she called the inmates’ demands “unreasonable”. 

Crowder points out that “the highest levels of the Department of Corrections have been called out repeatedly and publicly about these conditions they’re creating”. And “if we step back and look at these people — who are worthy of respect and a second chance — we have to re-evaluate our sentencing laws. And many of the demands that they’re making are completely reasonable.”

I spoke with Diyawn Caldwell and Veronica R. Johnson from Both Sides of The Wall, an organisation founded by the wives of incarcerated people to advocate for those on the inside. They detailed the inmates’ demands. As well as restoring their constitutional right to a safe living environment, they are calling for a repeal of the state’s Habitual Felony Offender Act, which results in longer prison sentences, including ‘life without parole’ sentences.

Caldwell says:

There’s no way out. If you don’t have an end-of-sentence date, you have a living death sentence.

Many people who have not even committed a crime that caused anyone any physical injury are serving this sentence. To put that in context, the same punishment was meted out to the Parkland shooter just this week after he murdered 17 people and injured 17 more in a Florida school in 2018.

Another injustice the inmates want to be fixed is the sharp drop in the rate of paroles granted in Alabama in recent years, particularly for elderly and severely ill inmates. Many of those who qualify for parole have been turned down.

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“We have more people coming out in body bags than we do on parole, and that is terrible,” says Caldwell.

The violence within the Alabama Department of Correctional Facilities is grotesque. Crowder has been working on the issue for many years and says “this constant death march has been the new normal in Alabama’s prisons. At one point, Alabama had a homicide rate seven times the national average in our prisons.”

She adds: “The number of homicides has only increased since the federal government got involved. It’s up to about 13 or 14 so far this year. And that doesn’t count suicides and drug overdoses. By one count, there have been about 60 drug-related deaths this year — that includes homicides that are drug-related and drug overdose deaths in one year”.

Corruption

The US still has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and the jail system is in crisis. The Equal Justice Initiative reports that “incarcerated people are beaten, stabbed, raped, and killed in facilities run by corrupt officials who abuse their power with impunity. 

People who need medical care, help managing their disabilities, mental health, and addiction treatment, and suicide prevention are denied care, ignored, punished, and placed in solitary confinement”.

They continue, “despite growing bipartisan support for criminal justice reform, the private prison industry continues to block meaningful proposals”. There is also the profit motive in making incarcerated people work, paying them very little, and pocketing the rest.

Alabama state prison. The US still has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and the jail system is in crisis.

Imprisoning a person, taking away their liberty, is what society has agreed upon as a fitting punishment for a person found guilty of certain crimes. Prisons are, in theory, corrective and rehabilitative. They are not supposed to be deadly and traumatising. 

Crowder has thoughts on why the situation persists: “It continues to happen because, unfortunately, the dominant narrative that’s developed in this country around crime and incarceration is that people who are in prison deserve to be there, deserve to be there forever, and deserve whatever happens to them while they’re there.”

All of the women I interviewed said that many Alabamians are ashamed of how their state treats prisoners and have allies across various communities. There has been some coverage of the work stoppage throughout the US media, but not as much as such a significant story deserves. 

Meanwhile, the State leadership continues to allow prison conditions to grow steadily worse. Crowder continues: “We’ve stripped away their humanity, and that sort of language and orientation comes from the highest levels of state government, particularly law enforcement.”

Work stoppage

It was hard to verify exactly where the work stoppage was at this week, with the Alabama Department of Corrections claiming that most men had returned to work and Governor Ivey stating they had the facilities under control. Caldwell denied this, listing at least six facilities where the men continue to strike.

“Our brothers and sisters on the inside are still pushing. They are still going. They still have hope. And because of that hope, they’re going forth.”

In a move widely seen by inmates as retaliation for their actions, the authorities have reduced their meals to just two a day, and sometimes those are just a slice of cheese and some jelly. Family and friends have not been allowed to make routine visits. 

I ask what keeps this hope going, particularly since the inmates’ living conditions have worsened during the work stoppage.

Johnson says: “it can’t get any worse than this. So they’re going to hold onto that hope that if we continue to hold out, the other side will be much brighter. And so that’s what they’re doing. They’re holding onto hope and holding onto their loved ones on the outside pushing for them.”