23 Oct What We Heard at Wednesday’s Prison Oversight Committee: Hope, Accountability, and the Work Still Ahead
Families need safety and transparency now. The Department of Corrections’ new Constituent Services unit—led by Stephanie Johnson—is logging thousands of concerns and resolving most within days. Lawmakers, including Representative Chris England, Representative Matt Simpson, and Judge Representative Jim Hill pushed for independent investigations, stronger parole review processes that recognize rehabilitation, and mandatory autopsies for all in-custody deaths. Commissioner John Hamm reported that construction on the Governor Kay Ivey Correctional Complex in Elmore County is 75% complete, with major investments in vocational training and medical/mental health facilities. Culture change, however, remains the biggest challenge.
Hope Matters
The hearing opened with remarks from Dr. Robert White, who reminded the committee that “hope comes from accountability.”
“When someone knows there’s a file being kept on the good they do—not just what they do wrong—it gives them a reason to keep trying.”
Dr. White also urged lawmakers to revisit good time and release policies, noting how the current system discourages morale and fails to protect people nearing release from predatory violence inside facilities.
He emphasized the importance of skills training and documentation, saying,
“If someone can hand an employer a certificate that says, ‘I completed this program’, that makes all the difference in the world.”
Tracking Harm
Stephanie Johnson, Department of Corrections Constituent Services Coordinator, presented the third-quarter report (July–September):
- 2,336 total inquiries (via phone, email, or web form)
- 114 duplicate submissions
- Average completion time: 2 days, 8 hours, and 29 minutes (goal: 1 day)
- Top five concern areas:
- Inmate wellness — family can’t reach loved one
- Inmate health — medication and medical issues
- Inmate safety — threats, extortion, or violence
- Release questions — dates, parole hearings, or mandatory release
- Facility conditions
Top three facilities with the most inquiries: Bullock Correctional Facility, Bibb Correctional Facility, and Elmore Correctional Facility.
Johnson said staffing shortages remain at Easterling, Limestone, St. Clair, and Staton facilities, but hiring is underway.
“Every inquiry is investigated,” Johnson said, “but we can only share updates with people the inmate has officially authorized. That’s a federal privacy requirement, not a choice.”
She also clarified how health updates are handled through the Health-2C form and noted that healthcare provider YesCare will contact the designated family member if:
- The person is hospitalized (within one business day),
- Their condition significantly changes, or
- They receive a poor prognosis.
How to report concerns: Visit doc.alabama.gov → Contact Us → Constituent Services.
Safety, Extortion, and the Demand for Independence
Senator Rodger Smitherman and Representative Matt Simpson questioned the level of extortion happening inside Alabama prisons—families being called by inmates demanding payment under threats of violence. Johnson confirmed that such reports are “a very high concern” and treated as top priority by her team.
But the conversation quickly turned to retaliation by correctional officers, raised forcefully by Representative Chris England.
“I’ve been contacted by mothers who say their loved one has been threatened by a guard,” England said. “They’re terrified that if they report it, that same guard will retaliate. When the people who commit abuse also investigate it, that’s a broken system.”
He called for an independent investigative body—not controlled by the Department of Corrections—to protect whistleblowers and those reporting abuse.
Chair Senator Clyde Chambliss acknowledged the need to study how other states ensure independent oversight and promised to revisit the issue in future sessions.
New Prison Construction: Progress and Concerns
Commissioner John Hamm provided updates on the Governor Kay Ivey Correctional Complex in Elmore County, currently 75% complete as of September 2025, with over 1,000 construction workers on site daily.
Key details:
– A 45,000-square-foot vocational training center (built in partnership with the Alabama Community College System) will offer certifications in welding, plumbing, HVAC, industrial maintenance, and electrical work.
– The facility includes 720 medical and mental-health beds and over 30 dialysis stations.
– DOC is rolling out a new Offender Management System by March 2026 to improve inmate classification and bed assignment.
Separate fencing will divide populations by security level to reduce violence between people nearing release and those serving long sentences.
Hamm noted that DOC remains the largest mental-health provider in the state, serving roughly 7,000 people on the mental-health caseload.
Representative England responded,
“That alone tells us the system failed on the front end. We’ve turned prisons into the default mental-health institution in Alabama.”
Population, Staffing, and Accountability
Hamm also reported that the incarcerated population has risen steadily since August 2023.
Following a 2023 pay raise, security staffing increased from 1,774 to 2,368 officers, with record-breaking academy classes. He acknowledged systemic issues, noting that 327 civilians and 111 staff members have been arrested for contraband smuggling or corruption during his tenure.
“It makes me sad that anyone would tarnish the badge,” Hamm said, “but proud that we’re finally holding them accountable.”
Representative Simpson commended the transparency:
“It might look like a black eye in the newspaper, but that’s the accountability needed to rebuild trust.”
Parole and Rehabilitation Must Connect
Representative Jim Hill, a retired judge, urged that parole decisions reflect what people have done inside:
“If DOC classifies someone as minimum risk and they’ve completed training, that information should influence parole decisions.”
England agreed, emphasizing that parole guidelines must account for rehabilitation and participation in programs, not just the original offense. Hamm confirmed that DOC transmits daily data files to the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles, but lawmakers agreed policy changes are needed to ensure that information carries real weight.
Autopsies, Transparency, and Public Trust
The hearing ended with a stark exchange between England and Hamm over deaths in custody. England argued that Alabama must reinstate independent autopsies for every in-custody death, saying:
“You lose credibility when you call it natural causes but there’s no independent verification. We owe families transparency.”
He also raised a disturbing example that underscored the urgency for accountability and culture change. Citing the Alabama Solutions documentary film, Representative Chris England described a case featured in the film involving Lieutenant Gadson, an officer accused multiple times of excessive force and civil rights violations, including a fatal beating of an incarcerated person. England condemned the continued employment of such individuals, stating: “Any system that allows a person with a documented pattern of violence to stay on payroll is irretrievably broken. If I can trace those lawsuits from assault to death, so can the Department. That person—and anyone who enables that culture—should not be in uniform.”
England argued that accountability must go beyond infrastructure to include the moral responsibility to remove officers who perpetuate abuse, while also protecting witnesses and those who come forward with information. The Alabama Solutions film, he said, was a painful but necessary reminder of the human cost of a system that fails to value dignity and human life.
Hamm agreed that the lack of an autopsy provider has created a major gap after the breakdown of DOC’s prior relationship with the University of Alabama’s medical program. The Department of Forensic Sciences currently only performs autopsies when there’s clear criminal activity.
“That really hurt us,” Hamm said. “We want an autopsy in every case, but we have no current resource for that.”
England concluded that independent autopsies and external investigations are essential not just for transparency but for the restoration of public trust in the justice system,
Rebuilding Hope Through Systems That Work
As the meeting closed, Senator Robert Stewart (Selma) echoed Dr. White’s opening message:
“Without hope, the people perish. These new facilities and new hires mean nothing if they don’t restore hope—to those incarcerated and to their families.”
The next Prison Oversight Committee meetings will be held at 10:30 AM on January 8, January 28, April 22, July 22 (Public Hearing), and October 28, 2026.
Our Reflection
The conversation revealed a state wrestling not only with the mechanics of incarceration but with the moral weight of what justice should mean. Real progress will not come solely through new buildings or faster complaint systems but through a sustained commitment to restorative justice—a framework that recognizes the humanity of every person, addresses harm, and creates paths toward healing and reconciliation for individuals, families, and communities.
Restorative justice and rehabilitation are inseparable from human dignity. Every policy choice—from parole guidelines to prison design—must be grounded in the belief that people are more than the worst thing they have done. Rehabilitation is not charity; it is an investment in public safety, family stability, and community health. True accountability asks not only how punishment is administered but how transformation is made possible.
To move forward, Alabama must reimagine justice as an ecosystem of care: one that prioritizes dignity over deterrence, restoration over retribution, and opportunity over despair. The courage to build that kind of system—transparent, humane, and rooted in second chances—will determine whether this moment of scrutiny becomes one of lasting change.
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