By Kelsey Stein
AL.com
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — A week after federal officials released a report about abuse at Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women, Alabama’s prison commissioner acknowledges that problems persist at the facility but takes issue with claims that state officials are not striving for reform.
The Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Kim Thomas met Thursday with AL.com to discuss a recent Department of Justice report outlining cases of sexual abuse at Tutwiler Prison for Women.
The meeting lasted nearly two hours, much of it involving Thomas walking through a series of letters and reports detailing his actions regarding Tutwiler since he became commissioner in 2011.
“As a correctional professional who takes a lot of pride in my work and cares very deeply about doing the right thing, to me the most egregious, the most despicable tasteless act of abuse of power is to do something like that, whether it’s sexual harassment or sexual misconduct,” Thomas said. “That’s the most egregious abuse of power that exists.”