‘Too many people dying in Alabama prisons:’ Speakers describe loved ones’ ordeals

Advocates, experts, formerly incarcerated individuals and family members of those behind bars described an Alabama prison system that kept inmates in a state of terror and a parole system that robbed inmates of hope.

Speaking to the Legislature's Joint Prison Oversight Committee meeting in the Alabama Statehouse, witnesses Wednesday described rampant drug use by those incarcerated in the state's prisons; trafficking of illicit substances by corrections staff; constant extortion demands by people in prison against one another, and violence perpetrated by both staff and those in the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections.

"There has got to be some change," said Tim Mathis, whose son Chase was killed in Elmore Correctional Facility in June 2024. "There are too many people dying. A lot of people here still have loved ones there. Mine is gone. There is nothing I can do for him, as much as I try and as much as I pray and cry over it. I am mad. I am not going to become unmad until something is done about this."

Witnesses also said low parole rates have hurt morale among those in prison. [MORE]