"A Vortex of Corruption.” No Law or Accountability [Klanarchy] for Violent Cops Running Alabama Prisons: State has spent $68M Defending ADOC in Court for Murders, Assault and Other Crime since 2020

AMOS WILSON STATES, “Given the historical and contemporary virulence of White racism in America and the injustice toward Blacks that such racism engenders, the number of arrests, incarcerations, and in many instances, convictions of Black males should be viewed with a jaundiced eye. The willingness of White Americans to heavily tax themselves in order to finance accelerated and increased prison construction, rapidly expanding police forces and so-called criminal justice system personnel, burgeoning private police and security establishments; their willingness to finance the incarcera­tion of a Black male prisoner upwards of $30,000 to $40,000 per year, in sharp contrast to their unwillingness to tax themselves to provide for the appropriate funding of the education of Black children and to commit themselves to the ending of racist employment practices; to provide adequate housing medical care, food and clothing; clearly implies that alleged Black male criminality plays a very important role in defining the collective White American ego and personality. “ [MORE]

SETTLING FOR BRUTALITY. The state of Alabama has spent $68 million on litigation to defend the Alabama Department of Corrections since 2020, criminal justice advocacy campaign No More Alabama claims in a report released this week.

The report, titled “Settling for Brutality,” details the cost of the excessive force cases brought by incarcerated people against ADOC corrections officers. 

It lists a dozen corrections officers who have faced more than three excessive force lawsuits, with the 12 officers racking up a total of 55 cases in the last 10 years. The ADOC still employs all of them, according to the report.

Beth Shelburne, who produced the report alongside Chris Izor, told Alabama Daily News that the lack of repercussions for these officers creates an atmosphere of “zero accountability.”

“It’s really an environment of lawlessness when officers can violate people’s constitutional rights over and over again with no consequences, with no documentation, with no follow-up, with no disciplinary action,” Shelburne said. “There is no law. They’re not following any rules, and if we’re trying to create an environment to correct behavior, this is the opposite of that.”

Shelburne was a co-creator of The Alabama Solution, a 2025 Oscar-nominated documentary chronicling poor prison conditions and violence allegedly committed by corrections officers. 

In the wake of the documentary, lawmakers introduced legislation to bolster prison oversight, ultimately ending in a deal with ADOC to create an audit pilot program. The first audit is ongoing, and those involved expect to release the first report in October.

The topic of accountability for violent officers was also a common theme at the Prison Oversight Committee’s annual public hearing on Wednesday.

Speakers shared stories from family members or their own experience being incarcerated about the conditions inside ADOC facilities, often detailing abuse from officers and poor medical care.

In response to the report and members of the public’s comments, committee member Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, called the ADOC “a vortex of corruption.” He called employing officers with several cases brought against them “a waste of money.”

“We could have actually saved money by firing them,” England said. “Can you imagine a scenario where a corrections officer beats someone to death? Not only beats him to death, but then later on, somehow the only witness for it dies too in Department of Corrections custody, and not only was that person given another job, but given a promotion while the criminal investigation was going on? Can you imagine what sort of culture you’re creating of civil rights abuses in those facilities if you get rewarded for beating somebody to death?” [MORE]