Annual Hearing on Alabama’s Prison System

The Joint Prison Monitoring Committee is set to hold its annual meeting today. Leading up to this, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Alabama is urging lawmakers to address what it terms a pervasive lack of transparency and accountability in the state’s prison system.

Before these legislative hearings, the ACLU has backed its call for action with recently released findings from the Death Capital Report, along with extensive research from the National ACLU.

This report documents all known deaths in state custody in 2024, revealing that 277 individuals died while incarcerated, with 105 categorized as “unknown” or “under investigation.” This lack of clarity makes it extremely challenging for families, policymakers, and the general public to grasp the true circumstances surrounding these deaths.

The ACLU is urging the oversight committee to advocate for reforms, which include mandating autopsies for all in-custody deaths and establishing a clear public system for defining death classifications.

According to the ACLU, the current classification system fails to provide useful information, relying on a broad range of vague terms like “natural causes,” “contingent,” and “undecided.” In some instances, violent deaths have been misclassified as “natural,” while others were logged under “not permitted to autopsy,” pointing to gaps in state law rather than family refusal. As of November 2024, there were 22 deaths categorized this way in ADOC custody.

If a death is marked as “an autopsy is not permitted,” it’s commonly assumed that a family member declined an autopsy, though Alabama law does not actually require this approval.

The ACLU report critiques the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) for discontinuing its monthly death reports in 2019. One of the key recommendations is to reinstate these monthly updates, as the current quarterly reports lack basic demographic information, complicating the assessment of trends and disparities.

Inconsistent reporting and unclear death classification criteria hinder any meaningful evaluation of whether conditions are improving or deteriorating.

There are calls for annual reports to include detailed information regarding the cause of death, the status of investigations, and the demographic context.

Data suggest pronounced racial disparities; although Black individuals represent more than a quarter of Alabama’s population, nearly half of those who died in custody were Black. Strikingly, 72% of those who were murdered in custody were Black.

The report also underscores that the drug trade within Alabama’s prisons continues despite strict regulations on visitations. In 2024, 17% of deaths were attributed to accidental causes or overdoses, and at least 38 ADOC staff members faced arrest for drug smuggling throughout the year, including an observer charged with related offenses.

Without implementing these changes, the ACLU warns that Alabama may continue to maintain a prison system where deaths occur without oversight or transparency.