The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) is the agency responsible for incarceration of convicted felons in the state of

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is headquartered in the Alabama Criminal Justice Center in Montgomery. Alabama has relatively long mandatory sentencing laws compared to most other states, resulting in a rising prison population stemming from longer prison sentences. It operates the nation's most crowded prison system. In 2015 it housed more than 24,000 inmates in a system designed for 13,318. In 2015 it settled a class-action suit over physical and sexual violence against inmates at the

Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women The Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women is a prison for women of the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC), located in Wetumpka, Alabama. All female inmates entering ADOC are sent to the receiving unit in Tutwiler.Bryan Lyman, "U.S. Justice Department to probe Alabama men's prisons"
''Montgomery Advertiser'', 6 October 2016; accessed 11 March 2017 The department also spends the least of any state on a per-prisoner basis. As of 2018, Alabama has the 6th highest incarceration rate under state prison or local jail jurisdiction per 100,000 population in the U.S.

History

Alabama prisoners in both the county jails and state penitentiaries have been required to work at farming and cotton plantations since the 1840s. By the 1878, convict labor rented from the state was used most commonly in the coal mining industry, often as strike breakers. In 1894 one coal company employed 1,138 convicts, another used 589. In late 1883, a state inspector discovered a prisoner working in a mine eight years after the end of his sentence. At the

Banner Mine disaster The Banner mine disaster of April 8, 1911 near Littleton, Alabama was a coal mine explosion that killed 128 people. The event ranks among the 15 deadliest coal mine disasters in U.S. history. The exact cause of the early-morning blast is unknown. ...

in 1911, most of the 128 killed were Black convicts. The state ceased renting prisoners to mines in about 1900, although county sheriffs continued the practice until 1927. In the 1970s, Alabama prisons were ordered to undertake major reforms by a Federal judge who described some conditions as "barbaric." Among other things, the judge ordered the closing of "dog houses," the name for hot, dark and filthy cells jammed with inmates being punished. In 2007 the prison system ended its farming programs, rendering many prisoners idle. In 2016, Governor Robert Bentley proposed $800 million dollars in state bonds to build four large prisons, each with a designed capacity of 3,500 prisoners. This program would allow the state to close an unspecified number of older facilities. Press reports indicate the troubled

Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women The Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women is a prison for women of the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC), located in Wetumpka, Alabama. All female inmates entering ADOC are sent to the receiving unit in Tutwiler. In October 2016, the US Department of Justice announced that it was conducting a review and investigation of Alabama's men's prisons to evaluate conditions as the Constitution promises humane treatment. "The investigation will focus on whether prisoners are adequately protected from physical harm and sexual abuse at the hands of other prisoners; whether prisoners are adequately protected from use of excessive force and staff sexual abuse by correctional officers; and whether the prisons provide sanitary, secure and safe living conditions.""Justice Dept. Announces Statewide Investigation into Conditions of Alabama's Prisons for Men"
Press Release, 6 October 2016, Dept of Justice In his February 2017 State of the State address, Governor Bentley talked in more detail about his proposed three-faceted approach to overhaul the Department of Corrections: "One, close Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women and build a new 1,200 bed women’s facility; Two, consolidate 13 of 15 close- and medium-security men’s facilities into three, new, 4,000-bed, state-of-the-art prisons and; Three, repurpose and renovate the remaining antiquated, facilities into Rehabilitation and Re-entry Centers focused on preparing inmates for release back into the community.""Governor Robert Bentley Announced Prison Transformation Initiative as his Top Priority in the 2017 State of the State Address"
Alabama Department of Corrections website; accessed 11 March 2017 In June, 2017 a federal court pointed out the Department provided inadequate mental health case, suicide prevention, psychotherapy, programming, out-of-cell time as well as monitoring of suicidal inmates. In 2019 the U.S. Department of Justice found conditions in Alabama prisons to be unsafe and unconstitutional, as result of a long civil rights investigation prompted by numerous deaths from violence in Alabama lockups. Prisoners routinely face prisoner-on-prisoner violence and sexual abuse, unprotected by the State. The DOJ notes "a high level of violence that is too common, cruel, of an unusual nature, and pervasive." The detailed report outlines cases of inmate deaths, rapes, extortion of prisoners' families and rampant contraband weapons and drugs. It says facilities violate the constitution, by not providing "adequate humane conditions of confinemen

By the end of 2019, the legislature had not yet funded Governor Bentley's plan for new facilities. The state announced that most of the Holman prison would be closed.

Operations

All female inmates are sent to the receiving unit in the

Death row

Unlike other states, Alabama has no provision to provide counsel to prisoners on Death Row. Prisoners' rights groups such as the

Equal Justice Initiative The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is a non-profit organization, based in Montgomery, Alabama, that provides legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongly convicted of crimes, poor prisoners without effective representation, and othe ...

based in

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

, have worked to fill the need. They have gained the exoneration of numerous innocent men on death row and prevented the deaths of others whose cases were considered worthy of resentencing. The US Supreme Court has ruled that persons convicted of crimes committed as children cannot be sentenced to death. In addition, it has ruled that persons convicted of crimes committed as children cannot be sentenced to

life in prison without parole Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes fo ...

(LWOP), saying that both kinds of sentences are unconstitutional. It has directed that its ruling on LWOP is to be applied retroactively and states must undertake reviews of prisoners who were sentenced to LWOP for crimes committed as children.

Holman Correctional Facility William C. Holman Correctional Facility is an Alabama Department of Corrections prison located in Atmore, Alabama. The facility is along Alabama State Highway 21, north of Atmore in southern Alabama. The facility was originally built to house ...

is the site where all executions authorized by the state are conducted. Its male death row originally had a capacity of 20. In the summer of 2000, capacity was increased to 200 single cells.Annual Report Fiscal Year 2003
" Alabama Department of Corrections. 33/84. Retrieved on August 15, 2010. Quote: "which also included a cellblock for 20 death row inmates." and "The death chamber is located at Holman where all executions are conducted." and "A major addition was completed in the summer of 2000 to add 200 single cells to the segregation unit. This addition was required to keep up with the increasing number of inmates on Death Row which had grown to more than 150." The

William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility is an Alabama Department of Corrections prison for men located in unincorporated Jefferson County, Alabama, near Bessemer.Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

judicial district.Donaldson Correctional Facility
." Alabama Department of Corrections. Retrieved on October 8, 2010.

Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women The Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women is a prison for women of the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC), located in Wetumpka, Alabama. All female inmates entering ADOC are sent to the receiving unit in Tutwiler.Doyle Hamm Doyle Lee Hamm (February 14, 1957 – November 28, 2021) was an American death row inmate in Alabama, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1987 murder of Patrick Cunningham, whom he killed while committing a robbery. While on death row ...

. During the execution attempt, executioners attempted for nearly three hours to insert an IV that could be used to administer the lethal injection drugs. In the process, the execution team punctured Hamm's bladder and femoral artery, causing significant bleeding.

Fallen officers

Since the establishment of the Alabama Department of Corrections, eleven officers and three K-9 have died while on duty.The Officer Down Memorial Page
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Gallery

Kilby Correctional Facility Mt Meigs Alabama.JPG, Kilby Correctional Facility Julia Tutwiler Prison Wetumpka Alabama.JPG,

References

External links

Alabama DOC Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alabama Department Of Corrections State law enforcement agencies of Alabama State corrections departments of the United States 1983 establishments in Alabama Penal system in Alabama Prisons in Alabama