By John Sharp
al.com
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — In a brief but emotional hearing at the Statehouse Wednesday, advocates for prison reform in Alabama applauded a legislative effort they believe represents a long overdue attempt to bring accountability to the state’s troubled prison system.
Testimony included sharp comments from former inmates, guards and family members of people killed inside Alabama prisons. Speaker after speaker delivered the same message: The system needs more oversight.
“I never had an idea that a 15-year sentence would turn into a death sentence,” said Tim Mathis, whose son Chase was killed in prison in 2024 and described efforts to extort his family.
The hearing before the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee centered on SB316 and came just days before a powerful HBO Max documentary about Alabama’s prisons – “The Alabama Solution” – is considered for Best Documentary Feature during the 98th Academy Awards Sunday in Los Angeles.
“We all recognize we have issues we need to deal with,” said State Sen. Larry Stutts, R- Tuscumbia, the bill’s sponsor.
Supporters say SB316 provides that. Its introduction, and its first appearance before a legislative committee, prompted some longtime prison reform advocates to thank lawmakers.
The committee will return for a special meeting Thursday to decide whether the bill should advance to the Senate floor. Stutts said he is continuing to meet with the Alabama Department of Corrections about implementation, including a meeting scheduled for 11 a.m. March 11.
Why is oversight needed?
The legislation creates a prison oversight coordinator within the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts. The coordinator would monitor and report on systemic problems within state prisons. The bill also establishes a Corrections Oversight Board to review the coordinator’s work.
Rachel Elledge, who was incarcerated at Julia Tutwiler Prison in Wetumpka, said her experience in 2022 was one of being “taken out of a violent and drug-ridden environment” and placed into a similar one, but this time under the Alabama Department of Corrections.
At Tutwiler, she said she was not offered rehabilitation or classes. Weeks passed without toilet paper or feminine hygiene products.
Mathis, whose son Chase was killed in 2024 while incarcerated at Elmore Correctional Facility, said extortion is “rampant.” He described a corrections officer once demanding $300 to transfer his son.
He said that as a parent, paying the money feels necessary “if you want to sleep. You don’t know what will happen or what you will have to live with the next day.”
Mathis recalled receiving the call that his son had been killed just two hours after speaking with him.
“The system provided no information about what happened,” he said, adding that ADOC officials could not be reached to tell him where his son’s body was. “Couldn’t find out where his body was or where it was taken. They went so far to tell me that if I came to the ADOC office, that I would be treated as a terrorist threat.”
The testimonies follow the release of the Oscar-nominated documentary that helped inspire Stutts and others to consider legislative action.
“The Alabama Solution” is a 1-hour, 55-minute film built largely on secretly recorded cellphone footage from inside prisons. It includes scenes of death investigations, assaults, and the overall lack of oversight in Alabama’s prison system.
The film was mentioned only briefly during the hearing by Stacy George, a former corrections officer and gubernatorial candidate who is interviewed in the documentary.
George said he agreed to participate because he felt the story of the prison system “needed to be told.” Like other speakers, he thanked lawmakers for considering SB316.
“I didn’t know this day would ever happen,” he said.
The bill’s lone opponent who spoke before the committee was Sam Adams, government affairs director for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA). Adams said his biggest concern was language assigning investigatory responsibilities for the Department of Corrections to ALEA.
What would the bill do?
SB316’s reliance on the Alabama State Bureau of Investigations, part of ALEA, would eliminate internal investigations within the Department of Corrections.
“This would significantly expand our investigative responsibilities at ALEA,” Adams said. He estimated the agency would need to hire 60 additional agents to handle “this tremendous case load.”
He added that shifting prison investigations to ALEA would strain resources and divert attention from duties such as highway patrols. ALEA agents, he said, “would have to have extensive training” to handle prison investigations.
Stutts responded that he understands additional expenses would be required but noted the state has already spent “millions of dollars in settling lawsuits within the DOC.”
“The costs are not the issue,” Stutts said. “It’s the humane issues, and transparency … those are the issues I hope to address.”
The legislation comes nearly a decade after the U.S. Department of Justice began investigating Alabama’s prisons. The DOJ found widespread inmate violence, sexual abuse, and unconstitutional conditions.
A federal lawsuit filed in 2020 remains ongoing, with recent disputes focused on whether a DOJ investigator should be deposed by the Department of Corrections .
Stutts has said the need for oversight predates the documentary’s release.
He argues legislation is necessary ahead of the opening of a new $1.3 billion, 4,000-bed state prison in Elmore County. Construction of the Governor Kay Ivey Correctional Complex is expected to be completed by October.
A second mega-prison is expected to begin construction this year in Escambia County.
The projects are part of Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s plan to overhaul the prison system and reduce overcrowding and violence.
The documentary’s title comes from Ivey’s 2019 State of the State address, when she said the state’s prison crisis was an “Alabama problem that must be solved by an Alabama solution.”
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