David McNew/AFP
- The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the State of Alabama and the Alabama Department of Corrections on Wednesday, alleging the state’s prisons failed to protect inmates from violence and sexual abuse.
- The complaint alleges the state violated the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment by “failing to prevent prisoner-on-prisoner violence and sexual abuse, by failing to protect prisoners from the use of excessive force by security staff, and by failing to provide safe conditions of confinement.”
- The lawsuit is the result of a multiyear investigation by the Justice Department, during which a settlement to improve conditions could not be reached with the state.
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The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the State of Alabama and the Alabama Department of Corrections on Wednesday, alleging the state’s prisons failed to protect inmates from violence and sexual abuse.
The complaint alleges the state violated the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment by “failing to prevent prisoner-on-prisoner violence and sexual abuse, by failing to protect prisoners from the use of excessive force by security staff, and by failing to provide safe conditions of confinement.”
Eric Dreiband, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement that an investigation determined Alabama’s prisons for men are “riddled with prisoner-on-prisoner and guard-on-prisoner violence.”
“The violations have led to homicides, rapes, and serious injuries,” he said.
The lawsuit is the result of a multiyear investigation by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the US Attorney’s Office in Alabama. The department also said the state was notified on multiple occasions of the violations, and told how they could be remedied, in reports issued in April 2019 and July 2020.
After more than 20 months of talks, the state and the Justice Department could not reach an agreement that would correct the violations.
"This is disappointing news, as the state has actively been negotiating in good faith with the Department of Justice following the release of its findings letters," Gov. Kay Ivey said in response to the lawsuit, according to The Associated Press.
"We will, however, push forward with our plan to reimagine and rebuild Alabama's correctional system from the ground up through the construction of three new regional men's prisons," she said.
Civil rights groups welcomed the news of the lawsuit.
"The Department of Justice filing this lawsuit signals what incarcerated people, their families, and advocates have long been waiting for - a clear and unequivocal signal that the failures of the State and Alabama prison system are abhorrent," Ebony Howard, senior supervising attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement that called the federal lawsuit "long overdue."
The American Civil Liberties Union also supported the lawsuit, with JaTaune Bosby, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama saying "it is shameful that our state leaders are once again being forced through litigation to do the right thing for the people of Alabama," the Associated Press reported.