We are receiving reports that multiple people have been beaten at Staton Correctional Facility by the CERT team officers and that efforts are underway to contact family members. If you know the person in the photograph below or their family, please reach out to them and tell them to do a wellness check.
If you have a loved one at Staton, please try to contact them for a wellness check. Also, please post an update after a complaint is the complaint. We are working on getting the other names. If you know the name of anyone who has been assaulted by a CERT officer at Staton in the past 48 hours, please post their name in the comment section below.
Thank you,
Station Correctional Facility 334-567-1460
p.s. Get as many details as possible, including names of officer, location of the incident, and any witnesses.
I want y’all to think about all of these covert racist reform-minded non-profits, the biased media and other agencies and agents, and people in Alabama who wax on and on about prisons, parole, criminal justice reform etc. Then ask yourself, where are they when it is time to take action for freedom and liberation of Black, Brown and poor people from the prison slave plantations and the shackles created by the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution?
Last week, June 23 24 and 25, FAM engaged the community and organize a 3-Day Protest to confront ABPP, Graddick, Kay Ivey, Dunn and the ADOC about the Carnage and savagery that is going on inside the Alabama Prison system. Not a single one of these non-profits or others that you hear talking about these issues and issuing their reports all across social media were willing to publically support FAM’s Call to Action for the families against the tyranny that is the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles.
At the same time that they refused to publically support FAM and the families during this 3-Day Protest, many of them are actively engaged in or have previously engaged in prison reform litigation where they have collected hundred of thousands and millions of dollars in attorneys fees. Others of these non-profits routinely solicit donations while claiming to be doing prison reform, criminal justice reform or some other variations of work in these areas. Class-action lawsuits, donations and fundraisers, writing articles for ad-based, revenue generating platforms, etc. are a few of the ways that these institutions exploit and make money off mass incarceration and Prison Slavery. These non-profit Institutions are not willing to give up their perch on the tree that profits off of prison slavery.
If you were paying attention, you probably saw many of them hanging around those Prison Reform Study Group meetings. This was an area that they feel comfortable in. These are the arenas they use to deceive the public into believing that something is about to get done.
They used their stolen or ill-gotten resources to mobilize our families to be there to be a part of the circus. When our families arrived, they were queued by our non-profit hosts to shut up and listen to the panelists, politicians and experts sponsored by the Prison Reform Study Group. This charade went on for 7 months. It was Big News !!!
Prison Reform Study Group meeting
Predictably, six months later we see the results of that spectacle: nothing. Furthermore, the legislation that their Black heroes #AbolishRepEngland and #AbolishBS (Bobby Singleton) came out of the Prison Reform Study Group with didn’t free a single person. Hell, if was so tame and obedient to White Supremacy pro-continuation of the institution of slavery that even Governor Kay Ivey lauded it.
FAM is not interested in such spectacles. Instead, we remained committed to our rebuild and to getting back to organizing families to be heard, developing political strategies and other forms of direct action that will empower us with the knowledge we need to solve this problem ourselves.
When the non-profits and others of their team can’t control the message, or when they don’t control the negroes involved, they don’t want any part of it. They won’t be found anywhere need any event where the words “prison slavery” and liberation of Black people from slavery and economic oppression are involved. FAM has been engaging in non-violent and peaceful demonstrations for almost 7 years now, ringing the alarm to the underreported violence by ADOC. The egregious racism that permeates the system, and calling for reform and change. They yellow t-shirts gang never showed up for a single event. They ain’t never supported us. Why? Because there wasn’t any money from them to be made. Our message was a threat to their survival as prison profiteers and exploiters. FAM wants Freedom and Justice and Equality. That is not their agenda. Through it all, we continue to see all of these great reports about how the prisons are getting worse. @bshelburne just issued one yesterday. But we aren’t seeing any reports abouts the multi million dollars in attorneys fees that the non-profits and their snake attorneys are profiting during the course of their prison reform litigation and “policy” work. In their prison reform litigation, you see the same names and the same game over and over again. But where are the results? What do the communities, the families, and the victims who are incarcerated receive? I’ll tell you what we receive, nothing. $0.00. They non-profits ACLU, SPLC, EJI and the rest of the alphabet boys get it ALL.
Carla Crowder, one of the prison reform-litigation-for-profit architects says that it’s not worth the effort and use of resources to request damages in lawsuits involving incarcerated women and men because the juries won’t award enough to justify the effort. Funny thing is, its always worth it for them to collect the attorneys fees settlements. They have some substantial settlements against ADOC, which is fairly easy to accrue considering that every court and investigate body that has ever been exposed to their wickedness has declared the PRISONS to be inhumane and unconstitutional. ACLU colleted over $1.3 million in attorneys fees in their Donaldson litigation, but didn’t recover even .01 penny for the victims of state-sanctioned violence, police brutality, extortion, rape and murder by Correctional Officers.
Ditto for EJI, who recovered $600,000.00 in attorneys fees in their private settlement agreement from their St. Clair litigation. They raise the same issues as ACLU, and reached the same result for the victims. $0.00.
SCHR has already recovered appx. $2,000,000 and counting for three-part class action against ADOC for medical, mental health and disability class action lawsuit. But they have recovered $0.00 and counting for the victims.
And when I say 0.00 has been recovered, also knwo that 0.00 has ever been requested for the victims. That’s right, they file this litigation and never even request compensation for the victims which are their clients. How can the ADOC not appreciate that? Our lawyers don’t ever want shit for us. Ain’t that sweet. These people are all collaborators and co-conspirators. On top of that, they also have a conglomerate of contractor friends who are standing in the wings waiting to get theirs, too.
Contractors received over $2 million in fences alone at St. Clair. All orchestrated by the non-profits. New cameras, and new doors with better locks to keep us caged in, totalling over 1 million were also added. Victims compensation $0.00.! No wonder these non-profits and orgs have never supported FAM, they can’t AFFORD to.
These non-profits practice a unique form of social distancing when it come to the people in prison that they claim to represent. They only interact with the “impacted” Community when it’s litigation time. . Pre- and post-litigation, they are nowhere to be found. Remember those yellow t-shirts that you saw at those Prison Reform Study Groups. You ever saw one of them in the Black community? They aren’t interacting with the Black Community unless we are their clients. They have to be making money. But when it comes to support the Black Community and stand with the Community to confront the systemic oppression, challenge the institutional racism and bigotry, and fighting to dismantle slavery, you won’t see not one yellow t-shirt.
Make no mistake about it: another round of massive SHUTDOWNS are coming to the Alabama prison system, so get prepared.
These prisons are so understaffed and overcrowded that even the people on the outside are wondering how this shit continues to operate if there are no officers around!?
This is insane. Why are we running the prisons? Why are we doing to labor that keeps the prisons operable?
For the past several months the parole board has been operating with two members. Nearly every parole has been denied. The illusion of parole has been a masked. It’s time for serious action.
This shutdown is going to be different from those in the past. The planning and organizing will be towards a specific goal: a Special Session on our issues, if the Legislature is not already in Session.
Family members, activist, supporters, whomever, start working now. Spread the word, mobilize, and understand the mission.
Alabama activist Ms Cookie has arrived at Donaldson and she is reporting that the National Guard is still present. Media reports are stating that #fahamivuamun #derrolshaw was armed with a handgun and briefly held several ADOC officers hostage.
According to social media posts, two incarcerated advocates in Alabama, Bernard Jemison and Michael Parker were transferred yesterday. It is being reported that Mr. Carter was severely beaten by correctional officers at Easterling prison upon his transfer there.
Here is copy of a post detailing the beating:
“Ok guys we need your help to make calls and send emails. Whatever you can do. This morning 7/31/23 Michael Parker was on the transfer list. He was to leave St.Clair and go to Easterling. When Mike arrived to the camp Correctional Officer G.Johns and Correctional Officer R.Kincey was there to search Mike’s things. While going thru Mike’s things they found his cellphone, his bluetooth and 10 packs of cigarettes. After they found these things on Mike they decided they wanted to beat Mike while handcuffed. Johns and Kincey began punching Mike in the face while cuffed.
“Not only was they punching Mike they were stomping his face in the ground. Mike’s head was bleeding and has 3 really big knots on his head. His left knee is swelling. All of this happened tonight about 7:40. Mike was not the only one they decided to beat. I don’t have this guys Gov name. All I know is the other man beaten besides Mike goes by “country”.
“This has to STOP. We need as many of y’all as possible to make and send emails. We need to let ADOC know we are fed up with the way our loved ones are treated on the inside. We have to let them know that these guys on the inside have support out here and that this kind of bullshit is NOT going to be tolerated anymore. So guys please make calls,send emails, do all you can do so we can get this investigated and taken care of.
” We need to show ADOC we are tired of their bullshit and that we will do whatever it takes to get our loved ones the help they need. We have to make them pay for the inhumane treatment of our loved ones. So guys please call and email so we can get Mike well not only Mike but all of our loved ones the help they need.
Easterling prison is in Barbour County, Alabama. Please contact the Barbour County Sheriff’s Office and the Barbour County District Attorney to demand that charges be filed in this brutal attack.
One of our Inside Journalist needs help obtaining a $45.00 straight talk phone card so that he can continue reporting and exposing the humanitarian crisis inside the Alabama prison system.
Please email us at freealabamamovement@gmail.com to assist.
Update: A very generous soul has taken care of this request.
“We’re all strapped to a gurney in ADOC, and all the drugs are lethal.” Free Alabama Movement
“It’s ordered and judged by this court that you be sentenced to death and you deserve death. If there ever was a reason for the death penalty to exist in this state, you’re it,” the judge said during sentencing.
As expected, Jimmy Spencer, the man whose case was used to change Alabama’s parole laws, was sentenced to death. He’ll serve his sentence on death row at Holman prison in Atmore, Alabama. The judge got one thing right: if you want someone to die in Alabama, send them to an Alabama prison. Any Alabama prison!
Jimmy will serve his time at Holman where the state carries out the death penalty by, among other options, lethal injection. Nowadays, though, it’s no longer necessary to send someone to death row to carry out an execution by lethal injection. Alabama’s entire prison system is filled with intravenous drugs like Fentanyl and heroin that are killing the men and women serving out prison sentences in state custody.
Also, Alabama’s prisons offer other options to die from besides deadly intravenous drugs. A synthetic drug compound called Flakka kills every month. Jimmy could also get stabbed to death, beaten to death, commit suicide, or die from medical neglect, at the “regular” prisons.
Due to the lethality of other prisons, Holman facility is now, officially a waste of tax dollars because Alabama is capable of carrying out a death sentence at all of its prisons. There’s no longer a need to separate people on death row because EVERYONE in ADOC has a death sentence.
Literally, everyone is strapped to gurney. We’re all hoping and wishing and praying just like Joe Joe Nathan and Alan Eugene Miller and Kenneth Eugene Smith were, that ADOC’s death culture can’t find a vein.
Note* This is a sample copy of the Bill to repeal the Habitual Felony Offender Act and to make the Sentencing Guidelines retroactive. We still need Bills drafted for all of the other Demands. These Bills must be pre-filed by January 17, 2023.
Please leave all questions, comments or suggestions in the comments section.
Sponsor:
Bill No.
A BILL
Sentencing, to repeal habitual felony offender act, to provide for resentencing of defendants whose sentences were imposed pursuant to the habitual felony offender act, Secs. 13A-5-9 and 13A-5-10, Code of Alabama 1975, repealed;
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA:
Section 1.
Sections 13A-5-9 and 13A-5-10 of the Code of Alabama 1975, relating to the habitual felony offender act, are repealed.
Section 2.
(a) Any defendant who is currently in the custody of or under the supervision of the Department of Corrections, the Board of Pardons and Paroles, or an Alabama court, for an offense where he or she was sentenced pursuant to the Habitual Felony Offender Act, Sections 13A-5-9 and 13A-5-10, and 13A-5-10.1, prior to the effective date of this act, shall be resentenced pursuant to the sentencing standards in place at the time of the resentencing.
Venue
(b) In the event a resentencing hearing is required, the venue shall be the criminal division of the circuit court in the county where the sentence was imposed.
(c) The original sentencing judge, or the presiding circuit judge if the sentencing judge is no longer in office, on motion of the defendant, the attorney of record, the Department of Corrections, a prosecuting attorney, the court, or the victim of the crime, shall resentence any defendant who is eligible for resentencing pursuant to this section. Unless the defendant waives his right to be present for a resentencing hearing, the court shall set a hearing, as soon as practicable, to resentence the defendant.
Waiver / Plea Agreement
(d) A defendant, with advice from counsel, may waive his right to be present at a resentencing hearing, by agreeing to a written plea agreement with the district attorney from the circuit where the sentence was imposed. In the event the sentencing court approves the plea deal but the defendant does not waive their right to be present for resentencing, the sentencing event may be held via closed-circuit or other technology available for audi/video transmission, instead of returning the defendant to the county of conviction.
(e) If a court elects to impose a sentence that falls within the low-end sentencing range as set forth in the current sentencing guidelines, and the new sentence would result in a lesser sentence than the one currently imposed on the defendant, the court may impose the low-end sentence by amending the original sentencing order, without conducting a resentencing hearing.
Section 4.
Although this bill would have as its purpose or effect the requirement of a new or increased expenditure of local funds, the bill is excluded from further requirements and application under Amendment 621, as amended by Amendment 890, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, because the bill defines a new crime or amends the definition of an existing crime.
Section 5.
The Administrative Office of the Courts shall make appropriate forms to meet the plea agreement and waiver requirements upon enactment of this Bill into law.
Section 6.
This act shall become effective immediately following its passage and approval by the Governor, or its otherwise becoming law.
What Our Movement Can Learn From The (Kanye) Ye West Situation For The Shutdowns
Over the past three weeks, Kanye West has dominated the news cycle. From wearing the White Lives Matter t-shirt to the statements he made regarding Jews, Ye has ruled the airwaves.
In the past week, however, Ye has seemingly lost hundreds of millions of dollars; he was forced to close his private academy; and former business partners are pulling out of deals with him left and right.
Why?
Because Ye’s antics were deemed bad for his business-partners’. Adidas, CAA, GAP, and several other companies have terminated deals with Ye, while professional athlete such as Super Bowl champion Aaron Donald, Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown, and others left his sports agency.
HOW OUR MOVEMENT CAN USE THIS SAME STRATEGY AGAINST ADOC
During the September 26 shutdown, the ADOC deployed workers from work releases and honor camps to perform essential services inside the prison or on location at the work camps or work release facilities. At these locations the men and women have a lot to lose because they enjoy a semblance of freedom. They work in the free world, they eat real food, they wear free world clothes, they earn and are allowed to possess real money, and they go on passes and furloughs for days and weeks at a time to spend time with family, wives and children.
The ADOC understands this, and they are exploiting it.
No one wants to leave a work release and be returned to one of Alabama’s death camp prisons. Nevertheless, even though they enjoy some contact with the free world, complete freedom is still elusive. Their parole hearings are being denied and they are being set off for five years just like everyone else, so they have much more to gain by shutting down.
Note: Jimmie Spencer was convicted Wednesday, October 26, 2022, in the triple murder case that changed Alabama’s parole law. So one can imagine what parole will look like going forward.
BACK TO YE . . .
So, how does Ye’s situation come into play for us? Simple. Ye showed us how bad publicity is bad for business, and when things get too bad, companies have to cut ties.
If the ADOC is going to resort to using these men and women to undermine our Shutdown, then we have to devise a strategy to respond. We can do this in two ways:
1) We can put forth effort to organize these work camps and work releases to participate in a shutdown, and
2) We can seek out the names, addresses, emails, business partners, and trade associations for the private employers of the men and women at work releases, and explain to them how their relationship with a human rights violator like the ADOC is bad for their business.
Companies have signed intentional and local business pacts agreeing to not do business with companies that engage in certain conduct. With everything that is going down 🚑 ⚠️☢️💲🔪 💉 in ADOC, we are sure that some of these companies already have something in place to walk away from ADOC.
3) We can ask employers to straight up stop doing business with ADOC work releases (a friend offered this suggestion when I was explaining my strategy to them) because of their human rights violations, and ask them to start giving those jobs to people returning home from prison.
A grassroots Movement effort that knocks on these employers’ doors and educates them about what’s happening to their employees from work releases is what’s needed. These employers need to know that if they don’t support their employees during a shutdown then we will be protesting at their storefronts and business offices. Our campaigns should start out with emails and phone calls, and then follow up with other measures as needed.
Employers need to know about the conditions inside ADOC, the corruption, drug deaths and suicides, violence, sexual abuse, murders, and everything else. They need to know how the parole board is functioning and why their employees never go home. Finally, these employers need to know that the ADOC is threatening punishment to their employees if they participate in peaceful shutdowns that are intended to help stop the humanitarian crisis and to return them home to their families.
Successful organizing at this level would provide us with a real “statewide” shutdown, and add unimaginable pressure on ADOC, which is what it will take to get our demands enacted into law. By having participation at this level, we also neutralize an important strategy of the state, as they can no longer rely on this labor to run their plantations..
WHAT “MAJOR CITIES”?
Currently, there is talk of having protests at “major” cities throughout the State. The problem with this strategy is this:
1) Alabama doesn’t have any “major” cities, and
2) The time and resources spent in these areas would be better utilized to support organizing the work releases and work camps.
It is the shutdowns that are the center of the Movement and what the state is responding to, and it is the shutdown that will cause the system to fold.
The largest cities in Alabama are Huntsville, Montgomery, Birmingham, and Montgomery. Neither city has over 225,000 people.
Two of the largest cities in Alabama don’t even have a work release or honor camp. Furthermore, the majority of work releases and work camps are in small cities.
1. Alex City Community Based Facility/Community Work Center
2. Birmingham Women’s Community Based Facility/Community Work Center
3. Camden Community Based Facility/Community Work Center
4. Childersburg Community Based Facility/Community Work Center
5. Elba Community Based Facility/Community Work Center
6. Frank Lee Community Based Facility/Community Work Center
7. Hamilton Community Based Facility/Community Work Center
8. Loxley Community Based Facility/Community Work Center
9. Mobile Community Based Facility/Community Work Center
10. Montgomery Women’s Community Based Facility/Community Work Center
11. “North Alabama Community Based Facility/Community Work Center
AKA Decatur Work Release”
12. Red Eagle Community Work Center
(Most prisons are built closer in smaller cities and towns or rural areas.)
In the current phase of the Movement, we are staring at the 2023 Regular Session which begins on March 3, 2023. The overall success of our Movement and getting our demands met will be determined by whether we are able to neutralize ADOC from using these men and women during shutdown, and the only way that can happen is if they are on shutdown too.
Alabama is still a lowly densed agricultural state made up of small cities and towns. The “major cities” strategy is suited for states with major populations. Alabama is not that pony. Alabama’s close-knit, smaller communities are much more homogeneous and easier to organize on one accord than larger metro areas.
There is a reason why the Montgomery Bus Boycott was successful in Selma, and the Black Panther Panther started in Londwes County. Recently two small towns united quickly around the Communities Not Prisons campaign to stop the new prisons from being built there. The “major” cities are hardly relevant on any major issue in Alabama concerning prisons, so why waste time and resources in those places when our Movement needs us right now in more strategic areas heading into the 2023 Legislative Session? We don’t have a lot of time before the 2023 Legislative Session begins, so we definitely don’t have any to waste. We should be devoting all of our energy towards the honor camps and work releases. Anything else is reckless and misguided – in my opinion.
Using our platform to explain these dynamics and issues to employers during the upcoming shutdown would be the ideal time to disseminate this message. News media and press conferences should be brought to those places and to those employers during the shutdown. The so-called “major” cities give us very little towards that end, unless we are in one that has a work release or work camp. We need to be aiming for a death blow to ADOC. Cutting off this resources, in addition to the prisons being shut down, all while during the 2023 Legislative Session, is how we win.
. . . Let’s not miss our opportunity.
Dare to struggle, dare to win.
Note: While the mainstream media depiction of Ye is all negative, Ye appears to have other plans too. Also, Ye wrestled free of all contractual obligations with those companies and is now reportedly looking into creating unique business opportunities for exclusively Black owned businesses.
We need help identifying those businesses in and around Decatur, Ala, that employ labor from the North Alabama Community Based Facility/Community Work Center, Decatur Work Release in Decatur, Alabama.
Please post comments below or send to famcontact1@gmail.com.
When the State of Alabama elected to pay the family of the the victims in the Jimmy Lee Spencer case $1,000,000.00 USD even before Spencer was ever convicted of any crime, a new precedent was established. Well, the question now becomes, will the State pay out settlements in every case where the accused is on parole?
I ask these questions because of the way the media is covering and reporting on the death of Raven Lynette Swain.
According to the State of Alabama, there does not have to be any conviction before a family can recover, based solely on the “accusation” that the person who committed the offense was under state supervision. Without a doubt we respect the presumption of innocence accorded to every defendant charged in a case, including those charges in Ms. Swain’s death. Indeed, this article isn’t even about that criminal case at all; at issue here is the precedent set by the State of Alabama in the Jimmy L. Spencer case. I am writing because I am wondering if the State of Alabama will apply this “Spencer” precedent when the victim is Black?
Go to the ADOC website and put some $$$ on his account. He’s being held in solitary confinement for refusing to work during the historic #shutdownADOC2022 strike and because he was willing to tell the story of how he was forced to work. He gave up community custody to support human rights.
Many people are asking the question: “what’s next?” The answer is quite simple. We only have one source of true political power as a collective from behind these walls, and that is a shutdown. Everyone can’t vote. Everyone can’t afford a lawyer. But we all can unit for a shutdown.
When this Movement started back in 2013, the four pillars that were determined to be the Achilles’s Heel of the entire US prison system were:
1) Work strikes
2) Boycotts (canteen, store, and incentive packages)
3) Protest (by family members), and
4) Social media campaigns
Deployment of these methods over an extended period of time, and at enough facilities at the same time, will destroy ANY prison system. However, this formula was lacking in one critical aspect: how and when to deploy this attack strategically relative to the system we are fighting.
Time rewards those who persist til the end. With the September 26 #shutdownADOC2022 demonstration, the final nail has hit the coffin. We now have the formula and it’s real clear.
The Governor’s election is the biggest election for the state of Alabama. Alabama will elect a new Governor on November 8, 2022. Obviously, we need to be active at this time, for many reasons. Quite obviously, the availability of media in the election media cycle will give us just the platform we need to complete Phase 2 and get our message out into the political sphere where state legislatures have to pay attention to our issues.
However, the timing aspect of the Governor’s race is only a prelude to the death blow. That, of course, would be the legislative session that follows the Governor’s election.
This year, the 2023 Alabama Legislative Session kicks off March 7, 2023. It’s a no-brainer what we have to do at that time: #statewideshutdown2023. Our organizers have to beat the ground at the work releases and honor camps.
Since we have demands that requires legislative action, we have to leverage our political activity during the session. A Bill must be pre-filed by January 17, 2023, if we have intentions of getting it passed during the session. There is much work to do, but everyone needs to be able to see the progress and know where the finish line is.
We already have support from multiple legislators already, but we need to have our Bill drafted to encompass our specific issues.We are on time and on course. We have to have a clear path to follow, and leaders at every prison around the State should be able to see and understand the mission, and lead the people accordingly.
On September 26, over 15,000 people stood up for freedom in the Alabama prison system. That’s 10,000+ new soldiers, warriors and generals to the ranks who had NEVER participated in a shutdown before. Most of them didn’t know they would be challenged by the ADOC at the core of our most basic human need: food. This is a real struggle against a system that is well funded and has been in existence for over 100 years. We gotta act like we want freedom, and move with the understanding that that will be a test of your will and spirit to achieve something great.
Understand the mission brother and sisters. A call has been made for us to stand again. We cannot miss our assignment and expect change.
AFTER SEPTEMBER 26, THEY DEFINITELY HEAR US AND FEAR US NOW!
On September 26, 2022, over 15,000 men and women incarcerated inside Alabama’s Department of Corrections conducted a historic peaceful demonstration for structural and fundamental change to Alabama’s sentencing and parole laws, and inhumane prison conditions.
In general, Alabama politicians have ignored the 20,000+ men and women in the Alabama Department of Corrections. Our pleas for help and an end to this humanitarian crisis that grips ADOC, seemingly without end, had fallen on the deaf ears of state leaders who view us as less than humans beings. (Anybody heard from Alabama’s Black Democratic Caucuses?)
On September 26, 2022, all of that changed when over 15,000+ unified and made a stand for our own lives.
When the fifteen thousand people united for one political cause, we instantly created one of the largest political blocks in Alabama. Our political party has arrived. On September 26 we made a bold political statement:
“Here we are. We are organized and we understand what our issues are. We also understand this bloodsucking system of death and denials. We are not going away and continue to live as slaves and die on your plantations. We demand change and we won’t be denied.” We must Stand on that statement or risk annihilation at the hands of our oppressor.
When this Movement started in 2013, the most participation we had was 3 or 4 prisons at one time; a total of about 3,000 to 4,000 people participated in those first rounds of strikes. With over 15,000 participating in the September 26 #shutdownADOC2022 strike, this represented nearly 5x as many people than previous strikes. A full 10,000+ more people were participating in their first shutdown. Let that sit in for a moment. There is a reason why the slave masters are nervous.
No one can deny what they saw or not appreciate the historical nature of the moment.
In an unprecedented move, a sitting governor, Kay Ivey, was forced to respond to both the protest and our demands – that same day. While on the campaign trial no less.
This means that everyone paying attention to her campaign heard our message. This is how you burst on the political scene without an invitation. Taking direct action like we did, at the right time, is how to get our demands before politicians and force them to acknowledge them publicly. This then opens the door for public debate, where can then garner widespread support for our demands. With continued pressure, we force senators and representatives to draft appropriate legislation. We have a process that we must go through, and we are well on our way.
Why did Governor Kay Ivey respond to demands from people she usually ignores?
Because when 15,000+ people unite for a political purpose, especially from our position at the bottom of the social structure, they/we can’t be ignored. It’s too many people, more than enough to sway ANY election. They have ignored us in the past because we are poor, unorganized on a large scale, many of us can’t vote, and we come from a black hole prison system where we are labeled the worst society has to offer. Yet, we organized a formidable 15,000+ strong army, with over 5,000 more at honor camps and work releases still to join in. Don’t fail to SEE the moment and understand what is going on.
As we’ve always taught in this Movement, we don’t need someone else to reach a governor or a politician or to make changes within our environment; all we need to do is take the right action and they will respond directly to us. Every media outlet in the state had to cover our story because it was such a huge national conversation. Let’s get back to the forefront of the media where we can keep our issues front and center before the public, and continue to make our demands a political issue that MUST be addressed — even by an incumbent governor on the campaign trail.
Understand that they see us now, and we must make them continue to feel us too. Where others use their vote and money to reach politicians, we have to use the shutdown!!! That is our political weapon.
The shutdown, which consists of: 1. Work strikes, 2. Boycotts of store, snack line and incentive packages, 3. Protests, and 4. Social media campaigns, caused tremendous economic pain on ADOC, and made them pay millions for their sinful ways. We have to break the system that has been breaking us for decades. They tried to starve us into submission, but our hunger for freedom, justice and equality was greater than the sacrifice we were asked to make.
We have go back on shutdown, and keep going on shutdown until our Demands are met. We are still in the midst of this very important election cycle, so we must continue to apply pressure. Seize the airwaves of this state, dominate all political conversation, and force the governor and other politicians to address our Demands by changing laws and creating pathways out. The only way we can do this is by continuing to exercise the only political power that we have, a power that captivated the entire nation for three weeks and has already forced the governor to respond to us directly: shutdown ‼️
#shutdownADOC2022.
We Must be heard throughout this election. Our lives depend on it.
*To all my comrades: This is Monday morning, STAY FOCUSED!!!!.. Spending money at the store or snackline DOES NOT BENEFIT OUR CAUSE!!..its not a sign that the administration is falling weak! At some camps they will act like they are doing us a favor by opening up the store and snackline,THEY ARE NOT! SO DO NOT GO!!!!…GOING TO THE STORE AND SNACKLINE WOULD BE JUST LIKE GIVING THE OPPS A PISTOL OR KNIFE TO KILL YOU AND YOUR BROTHER WITH…when the physical pains of hunger start to bother you,think about this “EVERYTHING THAT WE ARE SHUTTING DOWN FOR IS DINNER TIME, EVERYTHING TRIAL OR TRIBULATION ALONG THE WAY IS JUST SNACKS!!” lets continue to stand strong,STAY HUNGRY FOR THE CAUSE & VICTORY THATS WITHIN REACH AND SIGHT….. CAN’T YOU JUST SEE IT AND FEEL IT👀✊🏿😍? CAN’T YOU JUST TASTE IT💪🏿💪🏿🦍🦍!!!!??#standupstandstrongstandtogether
“Sitting watching the news hearing them tell the world so much bs They said today October 3 that thier planning to cut meals down to 2 a day in the prisons until the they stop stricking. They have no idea. The inmates haven’t had more then one meal a day since it started. Serving them raw fish a slice of bread a slice of cheese a spoon of peanut butter that’s no food but they gotta eat something Thier trying to starve them out of thier stand and it’s bull shit My dad has been locked up for 17 years now I was the victim so I realize I put him thier when I was 16 but as an adult I talk to him every chance I get we went to his very first parole hearing on my birthday and they didn’t no where to put me because I was the victim speaking on behalf of my father to get out and they didn’t even deliberate 5 min before they denied parole. If I want him out I say he won’t do anything to hurt anyone and I’m the victim why did they deny parole Now he is stuck in thier as a type 1 diabetic being allowed only one shot in a 16 hour span of time only getting one ”meal” a day that doesn’t even counteract the insulin shot he had so he is really low before bed got woke up to way at 1 am the next morning to eat so goes back to sleep and wakes up super high. I no my dad is not perfect but he is human they are human they deserve adequate health care and to be able to make parol when thier is nothing pointing against them .”
“Day 7 at DCF still on the starvation diet, but they’re not retaliating in any way yeah right. The officers are fed up it wouldn’t surprise me if the majority of them call in tomorrow. Lt. Fléeton pretty much all alone none of the other brass showed up to help him today I’m sure he is pissed off about that.
But on a lighter note the Officers pushed a segregation food cart full of food out in the hallway, and closed the door to the kitchen. Inmates robbed it blind; they are starving so I don’t blame them. I don’t think they did anything wrong just like somebody who steals in order to make sure that their siblings or themselves do not go hungry while a parent is dealing with an addiction issue or mental health issue etc. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers in the coming days. We’re still standing strong at DCF hope others read this and inspired to continue to push on for the changes that we so desperately need in the doc and the court system.”
Call For Armed Constitutional Rallies Against Alabama Prisons
“We need to hold ARMED CONSTITUTIONAL RALLIES FOR DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM ~Exercise YOUR rights to protect THEIRS~ – lets hold constitutional rallies to voice our support of ADOC inmates peaceful labor strike and raise awareness about ADOC and the state of ALs continuous violation of its constitutional responsibilities to care for ADOC inmates and allowing for but not limited to hunger, sexual assault, physical violence, forced labor, unfair trial, oversentencing, and denial of probation.
1. Alabamians support the constitution and the rights of the people in ADOCs custody to peacefully assemble for better conditions. 2. In 2020 the federal DOJ determined ADOC and the state of Alabama are operating AL state prisons in violation of inmates constitutional rights, and the state of AL has not done anything to change that determination. 3. Incarcerated Alabamians were not sentenced to hunger, illness, rape, or the many other forms of cruel and unusual forms of punishment that ADOC inmates are subject to. 4. The State or Federal government must take direct action to end the continous and unconstitutional violations of inmates bodies and rights.
We must hold this constitutional rallies outside state correctional facilities, the state capitol, city council meetings, and all courthouses. All working class americans must unite to support freedom, democracy and ADOC inmates constitutional rights. EXERCISE YOUR RIGHTS TO PROTECT THEIRS”
“Update from Bullock No workers going to work there might have been one person who went into the kitchen but last I heard they were waiting on him to come back in the dorm
Breakfast was grits,slice of cheese, a piece of bread They did pass out one roll of tissue and one soap late last night They took the blankets up during the summer time and have not passed them out despite it being cold at night The staff is tired, wanting the inmates to come off strike. They were supposed to have had a dorm rep meeting yesterday but they didn’t have one. I know they had one earlier in the week. The captain wanted to know what could they change at the facility to make the inmates come off strike but nobody did. So we still holding out. Pretty dry on cigs and food but everyone still maintaining If inmates go to work they are not allowed back in the dorm period Had a guy go to health care earlier to try to get a diabetic profile but they told him he had to put a sick call in so he left out and punched the window,busted it and they sprayed and put him in lock up. People are starving on 2 meals a day and some people don’t get any money from home that’s going to be the breaking point in all of this when people run out of food coffee and cigarettes that’s going to be really when the protest is over alot of people wasnt prepared to go this long without the store and snackline.”
“I would like to point out some of the issues at hand . I’m not afraid of the backlash. If a man has not discovered a cause he is willing to die for, the causes he is living for are in vain. This is not just a political issue at hand nor a whimper for comfort in a punitive situation. This is a plea for the consideration of humanity!!! We are oppressed in an unconstitutional “cruel and unusual” environment created by the state. Kay Ivey says ” The demands are unreasonable ” What’s unreasonable is to warehouse humans and use their forced uncompensated labor to generate capital for the state in the name of Public safety yet using minimal funding for inmates. While simultaneously housing them in dalipidated over populated facilities infested with drugs , void of proper medical treatment , and no security. What’s Unreasonable is , ” The state bleeding the federal government and tax payers for rehabilitation program funding in the guise of inmate reform. What’s Unreasonable is , “A parole board that Alabama inmate never see to present there on cases neither in person nor by virtual meeting. A parole board that has no oversight , no standard guidelines to meet yet have the power to repeatedly. Denie inmates who have shown by there personal efforts to comply for years with court and Doc recommended programming and educational milestones just to be denied for another 5 years. What’s Unreasonable is ” Those previously sentenced under the 446 act to life without parole for a property crime that the state used as a means of mass incarceration and isolation of a particular race. Yet he sleep next to a man who was sentenced for the same crime and has the same criminal history that under new law has only 84 months. What’s Unreasonable is ” 60 plus years after the the civil rights movement in which Alabama was the center of attention it’s administrative body still has a rebellion to the God given rights of it’s citizens and The U.S. Constitution. We don’t want special treatment we simply want and demand our Constitutional guarantees and especially equal protection of law without retaliation…”
Day 5. As the historic Alabama prison strike winds down the final days of it’s first week, it seems pretty clear that the ADOC wants violence. Over the past 72 hours, ADOC has started calling riot teams into the prisons in full CERT uniform, even though the work strikes have accounted for the most peaceful periods of incarceration in Alabama’s troubled prisons.
The ADOC has resorted to intimidation tactics and allowed officers to harass and assault suspected leaders. At a few prisons, ADOC officials have allowed certain officers to walk around and escort small groups of individuals to workplaces, even though the people are performing little to no work when then enter the factories. These exercises are meant to create the illusion that the strike is not working and encourage others to go back to work.
Even more egregious, ADOC has utilized mentally ill individuals as canon fodder, ordering them to perform minimal jobs when large groups of people are moved to the dining halls and medical areas. The ADOC’s intent is clear: use mentally ill as props. However, this tactic is placing lives in danger. When men on peaceful strikes see these people working, it causes resentment and tension. Several people have been displaced because of ADOC antics.
Some in the prison system are planning to start outing the names of suspected collaborators, which will only increase tensions but it will also place the burden on ADOC to stop fomenting violence. . . or else.
“(message to Alabama statewide) Attention: To all my brothers and sisters in this struggle and movement,PLEASE WHATEVER YOU DO,DO NOT GET COMFORTABLE! AND MOST IMPORTANTLY DON’T FALL FOR ANY PSYCHOLOGICAL GAMES COMING FROM ALDOC OR THEIR INFILTRATIORS!!!!…make no mistake about it,we are at war. Not a war of violence but a mental war..but its still WAR. Let us be mindful that war is a game of chess. So in anticipation of whats to come please be on point and on the lookout for the psychological move that will be sure to follow..notice that the first few days that they tried starvation. WE ENDURED! today the brought a decent breakfast and probably will be a decent lunch…they seen how ppl was complaining for the first few days and thought we would fold,now its hot meals. Next they will start letting you outside to get fresh air a little more each time.. PLEASE RECOGNIZE AND DON’T GET COMFORTABLE!!!..next they are going to offer yard call knowing that we hate to be caged(well they think we do)…after they offer yard call ,they are slowing going to put some officer or one of their infiltrators that crossed the picket line,inside the snackline..then eventually the store. After that when you are standing in the snackline or the store line or on the yard THEY ARE GOING TO EASE A WORK CALL IN……. PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE PSYCHOLOGICAL GAMES AND WOLVES IN SHEEP CLOTHING THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS… PLEASE BEWARE OF THE WARDEN WANTING A SO CALLED MEETING WITH ALL OF THE DORM REPRESENTATIVES! …at the end of the day,just think about it,WHAT COULD THE WARDEN DO FOR US AND OUR CAUSE??.. these meetings with all the dorm representatives at one time with the warden only lets them know who to put on the hit list that will follow days later 👀… PLEASE PAY ATTENTION AND DONT GET COMFORTABLE…if the warden wants to meet with the representative,tell him that the WHOLE DORM AS A WHOLE is the representative…the days of standing alone is OVER! we are standing in solidarity as one . That is what this whole movement is about,thats why its a STATEWIDE PRISON INMATE STRIKE…do not fall for the trap of divide and conquer, especially when we have shown the whole world what ALABAMA INCARCERATED UNITY LOOKS LIKE,,✊🏿….under no circumstances go to the snackline or commissary store. It defeats the purpose of assisting the state by putting the money that we took out of their pockets back in…let everything in the snackline go bad or let the guards buy it,…all of us as a whole have to be one accord… PLEASE STAY FOCUSED, DON’T GET COMFORTABLE AND AT ALL TIMES REMEMBER ALDOC WILL DO ANYTHING AND SAY ANYTHING TO WIN….SO WE HAVE TO BUCKLE DOWN AND BE PREPARED FOR ANYTHING…NO SNACKLINE! NO STORE! NO PACKAGES! NO FINANCING THEIR FIGHT TO KEEP TREATING US INHUMANLY! NO FINANCING THEIR LEGAL FEES TO HIGHER LAWYERS TO COVER UP THE MURDER OF OUR LOVE ONES!….#standupstandstrongstandtogether”
“This is limestone. The c.o.’s there are doing nothing as usual. Rubbish is piled high outside the chow hall, flies and maggots everywhere are now posing a health risk, the laundry has been collected but not washed and some poor men have no extras to wear. They are refusing to hand out the weekly toilet paper rations which the men should’ve had on Tuesday night and joking aside things are getting desperate. On Monday and Wednesday many dorms had only been fed one meal of grits and stale bread by midnight and the men are starving. I am proud of each and everyone of them and the other facilities that are ploughing through this cruel and depraved treatment and remain strong 👌”
On September 26, 2022, over 12,900 men across Alabama’s prison system launched a massive peaceful protest in response to the humanitarian crisis taking place inside ADOC Over 12,500 strong for #shutdownADOC2022
Reports emerging out of Limestone Correctional Facility that Robert Earl Council has been assaulted by ADOC correctional officers and placed into the solitary confinement unit. This is at least the second time Mr. Council has been assaulted by ADOC staff in the past 21 months. In January 2021 , Mr. Council was beaten nearly to death at Donaldson Correctional Facility.
“I don’t know how many people are truly paying attention to the revolution taking place right under your noses. We are the sons, brothers,uncle’s and father’s of family members that are trying to be held captive in the belly of the beast for all our days. But God has given us the opportunity to use this platform (social media) to let our voices be heard. We need you more than ever right now, our families,friends and love ones. We need your voices to be heard as well. Alabama has been a slave state as long as some of us can remember. A modern day pharaoh, who refuses to let it’s people go. But through the grace of God and the determination of His believers we shall overcome. Stand with us!! Let’s force the hand of our oppressor!! “LET MY PEOPLE GO”!!
“Hello active men and women in our current movement of freedom✊🏾. If I may have a moment of your time, I would like to share a proposal… I am among the population of inmates across Alabama being denied not only my freedom, but my rights as well… Though we all seek out to complete the same mission, we are on two different battlefields… The ADOC are hitting us with the same tactic across the state and that’s depriving us of food in a attempt to make us submit by starvation… Now we all know that this is an act of retaliation by the ADOC so my question is how do we respond? Because In all honesty, if a stretch is needed in order to make a change for our freedom, they will beat us along the way why? Because it’s almost like their day is still normal… Yes They have to cook and yes they have other new small jobs, but they are MINIMIZING EVERYTHING THAT THEY DO…. As we have all seen the “meals” that they have been preparing, thats is the bare minimum of cooking with little to no work at all, So I feel like we all as a TEAM should come up with something, an act that goes on almost simultaneously across the Alabama prison system causing the officer’s day to increase in work, whether it’s every inmate putting in a request to go over to the healthcare or whatever we may come up with I just Know that we need to do something to somewhat even the playing field… Me personally, I’m solid as a rock and I have people that need me out there, Just like many other great men in here, so I can speak for us all when I say we’ll go through ANYTHING that the ADOC throws at us💪🏾… But u have to understand that everyone is not as strong mentally to endure these kinda conditions, so I can’t stress this enough WE HAVE TO HURRY. If any thoughts or ideas come to mind small or large, bring them to the group ASAP…. We need all our minds to come together because we’re in this TOGETHER ✊🏾🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️”
“How can ADOC think we don’t know whats going on? We talk to our loved ones, we visit our loved ones, we see, we hear, we read and those who wasted a vote on a woman who only cares about lining her pockets, and doing what shes told? They may have done wrong to end up in prison, but they have not lost all their rights. Their constitutional rights are being ignored. Warden Terry Raybon is retaliating because of the inmate strike. He fed only the inmates who are diabetics and thats it. My loved one tells me everything. They shut down everything statewide. The kitchen at Fountaine correctional facility yesterday. Why? Something must be done to change this…. http://www.alabamaprisonnews.com”
Day 2 of the unprecedented labor strikes and humanitarian protests has started. Reports are trickling out of at least two prisons continued resistance at both Bibb Co and Staton prisons.
Bibb Co CF Staton CF
We will keep everyone updated as more reports come in.
“I’m at Bibb county prison….Today is September 26, 2022….marking the start day of a peaceful institutional shut down across the state of Alabama and across the United States for the ones who have love ones and friends doing time… today is not a day of sympathy or negativity…but smiles and rejoice because for one God woke us up….in the voice of DJ Khaled…”God Did”….so there’s no need for sadness or old come together negro songs but positive noise in the form of upliftment and encouragement….the numbers we have in here and out there amongst our love ones speak so loud I can’t hear myself think…lol…💯💪😎…. get louder….now we jus need the #DOJ to step in and make things fair because this is Alabama….only God can make this right….stay safe and motivated….💯💕
“This was sent to me and I absolutely LOVE IT so I’m sharing with you….
September 26th, 2022 is a historical and unprecedented day with the success of ALL major prison facilities going on a labor strike. Not one incarcerated citizen reported to their slave jobs which was confirmed by the ADOC Commissioners office. Every incarcerated citizen in ADOC who made this happen should be proud of this accomplishment. You have proven to yourself, the state of Alabama, and the world that over 10,000 men and women “can” stand together where it’s always said it can’t be done.
To top it off it is the first time since the riot at St. Clair Correctional Facility in 1985, that a governor has publicly addressed any issues brought by those incarcerated. This speaks volumes regardless of Kay Ivey’s response.
What has taken place should tell Alabama taxpayers a few things as well. First take into consideration that these men and women who participated in this labor strike did so in a manner that shows they are civil and can do things the way responsible citizens do things. Not a single ADOC staff or confined citizen was hurt.
Next it should be considered that those who participated in this historical event are tired of being treated as less than animals and are demanding their humanity to be given back.
Gov. Kay Ivey’s response is not shocking at all. None of Alabama’s taxpayers will ever agree that Ivey is the brightest crayon in the box. It’s time that we ALL understand that public safety is entwined with what takes place in our prisons and our court rooms. It is entwined with what kind of individual we are releasing back to society. Is time we are given an opportunity to discuss changes in current Alabama laws that have played a significant role in the current issues surrounding the inhumane conditions writhing ADOC. it’s time the lawmakers give us an opportunity to be heard and present solutions. And yes, it’s time Alabama stops telling those who are within the prison system nothing will change.
There are reasonable demands that can contribute to public safety as well as the safety of those confined. For instance the HOFA act “should” be repealed and those who were sentenced under this act SHOULD be resentenced under the presumptive sentencing standards. If the HOFA is wrong today and needed correction which prompted the truth in sentence presumptive sentencing standards as a reform, it was wrong then. HOFA is the leading contributing factor of the overcrowding in ADOC today.
Good time incentive (IGT) should be given to all who are eligible to return back to society. IGT gives not only hope but builds responsibility and accountability within those who are confined. This rehabilitation incentive will lower the violence, drug use and overdoses that haunt the Alabama prison system. This benefits public safety to the T. It brings actual changes to the incarcerated, it saves the taxpayers money through medical bills, it provides tools of rehabilitation. It gives the fate back to the incarcerated giving hope. Let’s look at changing the language of Section 15-22-20. It reads: Board of Pardons and Paroles – Creation; composition; compensation. (a) There shall be a Board of Pardons and Paroles which shall consist of three members. The membership of the board shall be inclusive and reflect the racial, gender, geographic, urban/rural, or economic diversity of the state. At least one member shall be a current or former law enforcement officer with a minimum of 10 years’ experience in or with a law enforcement agency which has among its primary duties and responsibilities the investigation of violent crimes or the apprehension, arrest, or supervision of the perpetrators thereof.
It should be amended to read “One (to be interpreted ONLY ONE) member shall be a current or former law enforcement officer with a minimum of 10 years’ experience in or with a law enforcement agency which has among its primary duties and responsibilities the investigation of violent crimes or the apprehension, arrest, or supervision of the perpetrators thereof.
This amendment will allow for this to be true: “…. The membership of the board shall be inclusive and reflect the racial, gender, geographic, urban/rural, or economic diversity of the state.”
Currently the Alabama Parole board is not inclusive (not excluding any of the parties or groups involved in something.) It’s not, reflecting “racial, gender, geographic, urban/rural, or economic diversity of the state. Economic diversity of the state with three members coming from former law enforcement backgrounds. One a former district attorney and attorney General, one a former probation/ parole officer, one a former state trooper. This amendment will allow public safety to not be compromised.
These are examples of things that are beneficial to public safety, and these are not the only ways they are beneficial and uphold public safety by any means. The other demands are not abandoned here and we demand now a public forum to be heard challenged and the opportunity to rebut.
As Kay Ivey said, the demands might just be “unwelcomed by Alabama”, but that cannot be unreasonable until Alabama SHOWS them to be just that.
Alabama demands change and to be heard. We are part of Alabama.
“Allen Earnestly gave me a prompt and a task about what he would like posted, so here it is :
What was clearly shown from the governors office response today and the meals served on the inside was that inmates are nothing but a number to the state of Alabama. The governor completely ignored any of the very reasonable , logical and humane requests on the list of demands . Her only response is more prisons are on the way. She has the ability to call a special session and may do so if our loved ones on the inside and continue sitting down. The only way any change will come is if the men and women on the inside continue to stand up for themselves, by sitting down. It’s apparent that the governor‘s office feels that this is just some sort of show for today. It’s up to everybody on the inside to show the state of Alabama that that couldn’t be farther from the truth . It’s not going to be pleasant, it’s not going to be comfortable, it’s not going to be routine.  Despite the governors dismissive words, inmates are humans. Inmates are more than just their ADOC number.  It’s time for inmates to come out of the shadows.   Let it be said that there are inmates that should never return back to society. There are people who cannot be rehabilitated .  There is no problem in admitting that. But, that is not the bulk majority, and that is not who we are discussing here. Kay Ivey wants to act like the protest and the shutdown is just asking for the flood gates to be opened. Of course, this is convenient for the governor to group all inmates into one group to put fear in society. She will do or say anything to present inmates as anything but human. There are going to be bad apples in any class of people.  She’s choosing to ignore that the majority of inmates desire to be rehabilitated ,desire to be reunited with their families, desire to be a productive member of society, and she refuses to acknowledge that so, so many have over paid their debt to society at this point. I just can’t understand how the governor and lawmakers can just be so proud of themselves for holding people in human storage units. The thing about lawmakers is a lot of them are guilty of crimes themselves, but it’s privilege ,status, and money that keeps them from serving time. To be human is to err.  Our incarcerated friends and family are paying for those crimes and mistakes with years of their life. There is no greater payment. This is time you can’t get back. What the people from the inside and outside are asking for is that time to be equal to the crime. and while serving that time, people are asking for an actual environment that invites rehabilitation. The people that judge inmates, both civilians, and both of those who makes the laws, most likely wouldn’t last half of a day in the conditions that these men and women endure. Once again, if today has shown you anything by the tablets being cut off, by the meager food, and by the governors statement herself, is that you need to show these people that you are valuable. You are more than just that AIS number don’t let them win. That’s exactly what they are expecting and hoping so they can continue to ignore and keep the inmates in the shadows. Keep applying the pressure .
Oh….. AND VOTE THAT DEMENTED WOMAN OUT OF OFFICE. Get all your friends and family and everybody out there to vote. If you aren’t registered, make sure you get registered as soon as possible, but I believe it’s towards the end of next month that you must be registered by. This is important.”
“Incarcerated individuals of Alabama tofay you have banned together to stand up for your rights and your freedom. That shows everyone yourselves included that you can be peaceful individuals. Today should show you that you are all capable of leaving the violence behind, stop the stabings, stop the violence inside. You have the power to stop this but you are also the ones doing it. I know your in a living hell but today even through this hell so many of y’all have banned together to stand up. So banned together every day and stand up. Stop the violence, stop the drugs, stop the abuse. Each and every one of you have a role you can play in fixing this and now we know you can. Today is just the start. Make them all see your worth your freedom and y that you deserve it.”
“THIS WAS SENT TO ME FROM AN INMATE THIS MORNING …… I wish someone would tell them to speak on and educate the public on how this shyt really works like for example. You know nobody else is getting sentences under that habitual offender act because the court system in Alabama had come up with and started sentencing people under the point system wich is a very very much more fair way of sentencing people and everyone automatically gets treated fairly the same as the next man who may have the exact same charges . And the reason it was changed and they stop using the habitual offender act not law cuz it’s never been a law it’s an act but anyways the reason for doing away with it is because it has been proven to be a unfair cruel and unusual punishment on top of all that it’s also the very reason that prisons in Alabama are so over full and crowded and that is facts thats not including the horrific and unfair and unjust parole board. Anyways bk to the subject at hand the habitual offender act ok so it’s been done away with because of a hundred proven facts that showed how it 2as not good for anyone the public ,the prison system,the state , the rights of people incarcerated and the state of Alabama nobody has ever bennifited from the way they where using this act. And so then how can you justify them not allowing neveryone no matter how far back it went that they 2h3re sentences ,how much time they have did or the nature of their crime . If the act was wrong and unjustly ,UN fair ,cruel and unusual punishment then we should be allowed actually it should be mandated that the courts bring every single person back to court to give them a chance to prove their case and if they can prove that you have been sentences way more harshly , that compared to someone with the very same or similar or even way more time even with someone with a more serious charge or case getting lesser time than you did cuz they sentences under the point system and you under the habitual offender act then I should get a fair chance to do that.”
Today across the state, incarcerated individuals and their families are banning together as one in a show of solidarity against the inhumane and unjust treatment of them all. No matter what role you play in this state you have influence, a voice and a choice. It is past time for something to be done in this state and we, the people of Alabama, are tired of standing back and waiting for change to come. Today we start the strongest and hardest fight against the state of Alabama to do what is right for these individuals. No man or woman deserves to be treated as less than animals, we all have basic human rights which you are not allowing. The more harm that comes to these men and women at the hands of Alabama the harder we will fight, we’re not backing down. ADOC stands for the department of Correction and they are the ones needing correcting, there is no corrections going on in any of these prisons. There is no Justice being served when men are starving. There is no Justice when basic medical needs aren’t met. There is no Justice when you keep men well over the age of 70 dying in prison. There is no Justice by keeping terminally ill patients in prison. There is no Justice when you don’t follow your own parole standards. There is no Justice when you punish families of these individuals by restricting visits, and overcharging for basic needs. These are just a few of the injustices that are taking place by your hands and it needs to change NOW. Today we stand, today we fight, tomorrow we will win.
“Alabama prison Commissioner has lied.. We are getting reports that all major institutions are under lock down not “operational”. That means no yard time, no trade school, no rehabilitation programs, no law library, nooooo normal activities. Not to mention no adequate meals, even though they are bringing Decatur workrelease inmates in to make food.
This is punishment and retaliation… Tactics to break what is breaking ADOC.”
The Alabama Department of Corrections has indefinitely closed down the chemical plant at St. Clair prison as of last week. Reports were circulating throughout St. Clair that there was an accelerated rate of cancer diagnosis at St. Clair for the month of August. While we do not know if these two things are related, we do know that as of today, the chemical plant is closed, indefinitely.
Some workers have had prison jobs for 20, 30, and 40 years. When we ask them to support the shutdown, please be reminded that these people are likely to get bored with just sitting around. Organizers and dorm reps have to plan activities specifically for some in this group.
Everyone should have a daily plan for the shutdown. For example,
1. Wake up at, say, 5:30.
2. Get self together. til 6:00.
3. Prayer / Meditation 6:15 – 6:45.
4. Every dorm starts the morning with a moment of silence and togetherness. Form a circle, and spend a few minutes together. 7:00 – 7:45.
5. Exercise, read, play cards, etc., until chow call.
6. After eating, group or community meeting. Discuss news, etc. 12:00 – 3:00.
7. Get ready for last meal.
8. Get shower and prepare to watch TV, read, play spades, dips, pushups, etc 6:00 – 9:00 pm.
9. In bed. 10:00 pm
Everyone will have their own schedule. Make sure you have one for every day. Those people whose schedule has included going to a job every day will need support adjusting. Maintaining a shutdown is an every day job. Make sure you do your part.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SHUTDOWN: Discipline your mind and stay focused
1. During a “shutdown”, no one in ADOC custody (with an AIS #) should report to work for ANY ADOC job, or any job that ADOC profits from. This includes work released, honor camps, all squads, Level 4’s and Max camps. If you know someone at any ADOC prison, make sure they know about the shutdown.
2. Read the List of Demands so that you know what you are sacrificing for, and be able to understand why a “shutdown” is necessary, and stay informed.
3. All non-emergency contact or association with all ADOC officials should cease 72 hours before the shutdown begins (September 23, 2022). The only person or people who should be talking to ADOC officials during the shutdown are designated leaders and spokespersons. All other should stand down or be viewed with heavy skepticism.
4. Do Not !! come off the shutdown until all demands are met.
5. During a shutdown, everyone should move as a group. No small group of people should be outside their living area or away from their community alone. Remember, we are all together. We go to the dining hall together, we return to our living areas together, and we stay together. Period! Build and organize.
6. During a shutdown, embrace each other and promote unity at all times. Do not engage in violent confrontations with each other, under any circumstance. If you see a situation evolving, step in and help diffuse it. Exercise together, play cards, bet for pushups instead of money, read together, pray, etc., and definitely study together.
Things get intense during a shutdown, so maintain peace with your fellow brother and sister. Do your best to control yourself first, as this will help you to avoid unnecessary confrontation with those who are sacrificing along with you. This will help you be able to step into other situations and diffusive them.
7. Do not exploit financial markets during a shutdown. This includes not trying to jack up prices for food items, tops and coffee. People are sacrificing for a greater cause, so no one should take advantage of the situation. Warning ⚠️: No one is under any obligation to protect the person or property of an exploiter.
8. During a shutdown, film and/or document all activities occurring at your prison, but do not identify yourself unless you feel comfortable doing so. Remember, it is better to pre-record than to go Live. By pre-recording, you have time to secure yourself and property before the video is released. Keep your tablets charged and use them sparingly. Do not communicate important information on a tablet or wall phone.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET SNATCHED UP
9. Do not panic if you get snatched up and placed into solitary confinement. If you know you are taking on a prominent role or may be identified as a leader, get prepared. a) Separate important mail and legal documents, b) make sure someone in the prison has your emergency contact information, c) notify family members of what’s going on and how/why your normal communication routine may change, d) be sure to back up first, and then delete important information from your phone, and don’t forget to check your notepads, etc.
STORING FOOD AND OTHER PREPARATIONS
10. This is an important topic that always comes up during a shutdown, and a very important decision. There is no one way to handle it. As far as the shutdown goes though, there are some practical considerations that should help you with this decision.
a) A food truck (and the store truck) runs every week at a prison. This means that a prison has storage space for ONLY ONE WEEK’s worth of food supplies at any given time. No army can go to war with only ONE WEEK worth of food. But we already know that it takes more than one week to make change, so choosing the right strategy for food is important. Having a sound strategy in place eliminates situations where some people have food and some don’t. We have to think BIG to accomplish BIG things.
Consider this, the Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted for 13 months. In order for us to see real change, this process that is starting on September 26 will take some time too. Realistically, we can’t save and store enough food to last until real change will occur, so why even try? Here’s what we can do strategically to maintain unity and to keep the Movement going strong.
b) When chow is called, every person, in every dorm should go to the dining hall and take at least one tray, whether you plan to eat it or not. By requiring the state to make enough trays to serve everyone, we apply additional monetary pressure on the state food budgets, and we keep staff in the kitchen longer. Also, no one should leave the serving window until they have a full portion on their tray. We should move at a reasonable pace to the chow hall, we should take our time to eat our meals and wait until everyone is done before exiting the chow hall, and we should move back to the dorm at a reasonable pace. Other people may have different strategies, just make sure that everyone at your location is on the same page and using the same strategy. Communication is important. Know your plan.
HOW TO HOLD ADOC ACCOUNTABLE DURING THE SHUTDOWN
11. The ADOC is still responsible for all basic services, even during a shutdown. In addition to cooking and serving meals, ADOC also must ensure that clothes are washed, trash is taken out, showers are cleaned, and emergency medical services are provided.
If ADOC is not performing any of these vital tasks in a public housing areas, contact the Department of Health and Human Services and report the violation. If possible, take pictures and film videos. This evidence can be used in a class action civil suit later.
Medical staff and nurses are required to respond to all medical emergencies. This includes chest pains, shortness of breath, and overdoes, etc. Medical staff has a duty to report to the dorm areas and transport those in need of dialysis and other assistance. Make them do their jobs. If they refuse to come to the living areas and attend to emergencies (like they do when an officer is down), call the Alabama Board of Nursing immediately.
12. Finally, use social media, the advocacy groups and outside supporters. If you don’t have family support or you don’t want to be exposed, make sure you link up with support groups and others to assist you. No one is alone during a shutdown.
CONCLUSION
These are helpful suggestions for anyone participating in a shutdown, especially those new to ADOC, or have never participated in a shutdown before. If you are new, don’t be afraid to ask questions. Every prison has their own politics and leadership. Figure out what works best at your prison and hold your prison down. And, if your prison is the first one on shutdown or at some point becomes the only one on shutdown, don’t worry about what is going on at other places. Maintain your discipline and stay focused. If you hold your prison down long enough, others will join. Do your part, do your best, and don’t allow anyone to deter you.
“Another life lost here at Bibb county this morning, A life that could’ve been save but the police wouldn’t open the door to get him to the infirmary and on top of that, when the police did push him to the infirmary, they left him outside instead of taking him inside to get him check. Smh. We need to do something, before the next person is your love one were posting about.RIP MEATBALL”
A call to action has been issued from inside ADOC for a statewide shutdown on September 26, 2022, in unison with the Rally being scheduled for the same day in Montgomery, Alabama.
Alabama parole attorney does research and discovers that the only individuals granted parole on the day his client was denied, had swastika and nazi tattoos on their ADOC page.
Springville, Alabama. News broke this morning that another person was found dead from a probable drug overdose at St. Clair prison in Springville, Alabama.
“To be fr us inmates gotta take over all these Alabama prison and take control of every facility and don’t let the police count or enter the building or let dem go out of the building if we want justice and a better life in here fr hell alot of us have time which means there’s no going home right now or probably never go home and it’s only hurts us bc we talk about this bullshit errday but we ain’t standing up period yes we all of us that’s wearing a brown uniform 💯 but we standing up against each other on sum city stuff or gang stuff and the real Gangsta are the ppl who count us errday with a police badge on there shirts or jacket’s or put us in lock up or take our things we plan so hard to get in these prison and it’s funny to dem bc we ass men in brown uniform are sweet not on no gay shit just sweet bc I only seen a few men stand up in these 17 yrs to the police bc it starts with us but we so blind to the fact of making money in here and helping our family and love ones on the outside which is great I love helping my mother and kids but we don’t see that it only takes us as men white black Mexican Bloods, Crips ,disciples to have Alabama prison make the world news but hey one man can’t do it on his own so I guess we gone forever hurt each other and stay in this hell hole 🙏😈”
Now that you’ve watched the videos about medical neglect in the Alabama prison system, here’s what you can do as a concerned citizen or family member to get that person some help pursuant to the Alabama Medical Furlough Act.
Your help could possibly lead to someone regaining their freedom through a medical furlough.
State inmate serving 1-year sentence dies in Bullock County
By WSFA 12 News Staff Published: Jul. 29, 2022 at 11:53 AM CDT
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – A state inmate serving at the Bullock County Correctional Facility has died, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections.
ADOC says Casey Cook, 26, was found unresponsive Tuesday. After an evaluation by medical staff, Cook was pronounced dead.
Cook’s body was taken for a full autopsy. His cause of death is pending, ADOC added.
Cook was convicted in St. Clair County for possession/receiving a controlled substance and was serving a one-year sentence at the time of his death.
The residents inside Alabama’s prison system have awaken once again to news of yet another death inside ADOC.
Latest victim of ADOC’s prison humanitarian crisis
Last week it was reported that the Alabama Department of Corrections is on pace to surpass last year’s death toll, which was the deadliest of record over the past decade.
Report by Beth Shelburne
The same day this report was published, at least three more deaths were reported. Since then, appx. 7 total deaths have occurred, including the execution of Mr. Joe Nathan James, Jr.
Despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis inside ADOC, Regions Bank and other state businesses continue to partner with ADOC to build new death cages and death chambers.
“July 20,2022 alone; 3 men died in Louisiana State Penitentiary:1 suicide & 2 overdoses. That’s not counting the rest of the month or yr. Y is it that,now laws have changed where men can & will be released,when it was once stated that 95% of the men in Angola would die there;are now going home daily & yet obstacle’s are still taking the lives of these men WHO R MAJORITY MEN OF COLOR? PPL, OPEN YA EYES!!! PPL OPEN YA MIND!!! I SAY AGAIN TODAY AS I SAID YESTERDAY,REACH OUT 2 YA LOVES ONE’S & OR FRIENDS INCARCERATED BC THE PRISON OFFICIAL’S DO NOT GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THEM @ ALL.SO IF U LOVE THEM AS U SAY U DO IT WOULD VITALLY WISE OF U 2 ACTUALLY SHOW THAT LOVE VERSUS JUST SAYING THT WORD. 4 THOSE OF U WHO NEVER VISITED A PERSON IN PRISON,U CAN NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY GO THRU MENTALLY OR EMOTIONALLY.PPL INCARCERATED BIGGEST MENTAL PLAGUE R THE SECURITY BC OF THE UNNECESSARY SHIT THEY DO.. DEALING THE FOOLISHNESS FROM SECURITY ALONE IS MENTALLY DEPRESSING 4 A # OF REASONS I CAN NOT ADDRESS ON FB BC I’LL GO 2 FB JAIL,JUST KNOW I SPEAK FROM EXPERIENCE. CONJOINED WITH THE LIVING CONDITION’S. ON ANY GIVING DAY THE HEAT IN THE DORMS,NOT OUTSIDE,WILL BE 100° + THAT’S ENOUGH TO FRUSTRATE SOME1 & CAUSE CHAOS. PPL ✔️ ON YA LOVES ONE’S & SHOW THEM THE LOVE THEY NEED 2 HELP THEM GET THRU WHATEVER THEY GOING THRU AN COMFORT THEM MENTALLY.”
40 Days and 40 Nights of Prayer / Meditation 🙏 For Change in ADOC.
Beginning Saturday July 16, 2022, until August 25, 2022, at 7 am and 7 pm.
Please join families, friends, loved ones, supporters, and other for this powerful Prayer / Meditation spiritual journey starting tomorrow at 7 am. If you would like to start a prayer group or if you prefer to pray alone, share your details.
You can also call in to the prayer line @ 551.258.6160 where we can all pray and uplift each other together.
We will be following up the 40 Days and Nights Prayer / Meditation event with a Prayer Vigil and other events in Bham, Alabama on August 25, 2022, from 10 am – 1:00 pm.
Plans are tentatively being discussed to host families, activists, supporters and others at Linn Park in Bham, Alabama, followed up by events at Region’s Bank.
Start making plans today to attend.
For more details, email alafreedomevents@gmail.com.
“This is no joke this is a true ,fact.employed by the Alabama Department of corrections Warden Carmelia Cargyle, verbally insulted and physically displayed a attempt to assault and undermined another Warden by the name Warden G.Givens awhile this Warden Givens was administering store call canteen call during the afternoon hours at Staton Correctional facility in Elmore Alabama where she has been directed to assist in the plight of all the negative activity that has been going on with this institution so far. Where in Cargill wanted the yard closed totally with not even a single person moving, and Warden Givens was watching over male inmates on the recreational yard picking up their food and supplies, when Warden Camilla Cargill stepped out of the building from nowhere and started shouting at everyone inmates officers and this visiting and acting Warden Givens , stating and shouting did y’all hear what I said get the hell off this yard! Warden Givens politely trying to speak toward and Cargill notifying her that she was about to wrap the situation up and when she walked towards this lady in response wouldn’t Cargill through her hand up two inches away from Warden given space and face and told her to shut up and that she ran this prison ,not her! Warden givens apologize to the inmates and officers that were present and follow Warden Cargill inside at Staton and Correctional facilities administration building, haven’t seen Warden Givens since then, sad no accountability, no leadership, no professionalism, no peace, and we wonder why the prison system are falling apart.”
Message from inside an Alabama prison requesting assistance:
“Today at staton Correctional facility, during feeding hours in the evening Correctional captain Smith, along with Correctional sergeant wheats turns turns black white and in between inmates around and does not allow them to eat, because they have hair on their face?? I guess because they have beards or mustaches they look too masculine and they want to feminize the man maybe because it doesn’t turn them on I don’t know? But I will say this everyone needs to call Downtown Montgomery and ask why this Correctional captain is back in this camp? Because he Captain Smith and Captain Rogers who is located at Bullock Correctional facility at the very moment as acting captain were moved out of facilities because of the death of a white male inmate by the nickname of Cody at Staton Correctional facility back in February this white male was murdered and e dormitory , only after the white male presented himself to both captains and told them he was in danger and they Rogers and Smith turned this young white male inmate around and told him to go to the dormitory and face your fears!! Downtown Montgomery John Ham James ham at the commissioner if y’all ain’t getting rid of these two MFS by the end of the week we know we need to get rid of you and Kay Ivey all together!!! The boy got stabbed and killed in this dormitory because of hearsay, and died on the way to the hospital he was about to end his sentence and go home to his mother, Captain Rogers is still working for the Alabama Department of corrections and he turned this bar around 👉🗡️ Captain Smith still working for the Alabama Department of corrections and he echo the command to this young man to come back to a dormitory to lose his life! Captain Rogers was transferred to ventures for 2 months where he sexually harassed female officers, plotting to have sex or else with them and when one of the females reported the incident. They transferred him to Bullock Correctional facility so Warden Patrice Richie Jones could babysit him and and bandage the deceit and ugly villain that the Alabama Department of corrections employees to this date somebody please some advocate, please! Get off of the remote and pick up the cell phones, in the old vintage phones, and any other devices of communication and call Downtown Montgomery central office John or James ham whatever his name is and ask them why do they have these two sick individuals still working in the system when they need to be getting booked in on charges of criminal negligent homicide, why these individuals denying your children food? And! When they could have left your kid at home if they weren’t going to feed clothes and make sure that their medical and their mental in their life needs were taken care of! Somebody everybody please pick up your phone and call and ask and tell in the man that central office command these people off their property Captain Rogers, via Bullock Correctional facility, Captain Smith via Staton Correctional facility Sergeant Wheats via Correctional facility these are the men that are dissolving your institutions that are allowing neglect, and evil and death into your institutions and one of them calls himself a preacher 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀how sick.”
Atmore, Al. Yet another casualty of the drug epidemic is being reported out of GK Fountain CF in Atmore, Al. Bobby Gilbert, known throughout the system as, was found dead from a drug overdose. Snake is the second person to die from an overdose at Fountain in the past week. He is also at least the fourth person to die in the Fountain lockup unit in the past year.
The conditions inside Alabama prisons continue to breed despair, hopelessness and desperation. Unfortunately, because the ADOC lacks the resources to provide the help needed for the men and women under their care, drugs are fast becoming a third rail way out of misery.
Atmore, Al. We are receiving a report out of GK Fountain prison in Alabama that a person has died from a drug overdose in the solitary confinement. This would be the third or fourth overdose death in the solitary confinement unit in the past year.
As the drug epidemic continues to rage uncontrollably throughout the ADOC, government leaders ignore the current suffering that is claiming lives while they pursue new mega facilities to serve as the death camps for a new generation.
Getting this drug problem and violence under control will require assistance from families as well as the men and women on the inside. The less we do, the less of a commitment we have to stopping these deaths and the less we’ll be effective in our demands for changes at the parole board and State House.
The maxim Organize or Die has never been more applicable.
Over the past week, in addition to the multiple violent deaths and drugs overdoses at multiple Alabama prisons, there was also an escape from GK Fountain prison in Atmore, Alabama.
Fountain prison had been a Level 4 medium security facility until 2020 when it was upgraded to a maximum security Level 5 facility.
Over the past two years, hundreds of men with life without parole and others who were classified as maximum security were transferred to Fountain.
After the recent escape, the ADOC starting transferring these men out of Fountain today, back to the remaining overcrowded and exceedingly dangerous maximum facilities. Transfers are ongoing and people have been arriving at other max camps late into the night.
Taxpayers, on the other hand, are footing an enormous bill for these transfers. Mental health services, medical and other needs are going to be disrupted, while those in trade schools and other programs will have to start over. All of these operations will require costs that will be paid for with valuable tax dollars. The fact that thousands of dollars were spent to reclassify this prisons upgrade security, conduct hundreds of transfers only to now scrape everything less than two years later, is yet a other sign of ADOC’s incompetence.
ADOC’s overcrowding woes are expected to get worse at the remaining max camps, bringing more problems to an already out of control system.
As if the Alabama prison system didn’t already have enough issues, a new crisis is looming over the prison system – a food shortage. A cutback in meals and the unavailability of some food staples are already being felt and causing panic. In addition, many supplemental food items on the canteen are either unavailable or being sold with limits on quantity. Some prisons are serving bologna, hot dogs or corn dogs as much as 8 to 9 times per week over the course of 13 lunch and dinner meals.
Fruit, a necessity for providing nutrition to help stay healthy during the pandemic, is increasingly scarce, while people in some solitary units are denied fruit, milk and dessert outright. Evidence of food shortage issue have also surfaced after several individuals incarcerated throughout ADOC shared photos of skimpy food trays, while others have written about how food quantity and quality have diminished over the past 6 to 8 months.
The prison rumor mill, always a source for information, is saying that the prison system’s food supply chain is strained due to COVID-related disruptions and that food trucks are arriving at prisons with limited inventories. Anxiety is rising over concerns that ADOC could be face a major food shortage issue later this month.
Continue to follow Free Alabama Movement for more updates on this developing issue.
” If treated kindly, well fed and clothed, with fuel enough to keep a small fire burning all night — separated into families, each family having its own house — not permitted to run about at night to visit their neighbors, to receive visits or use intoxicating liquors, and not overworked or exposed too much to the weather, they are very easily governed — more so than any other people in the world. If any one or more of them, at any time, are inclined to raise their heads to a level with their master or overseer, humanity and their own good requires that they should be punished until they fall into that submissive state which was intended for them to occupy. They have only to be kept in that state, and treated like children to prevent and cure them from running away.”
“Jonathan Clay Click, 33, was discovered unresponsive in his bed at William Donaldson Correctional Facility in west Jefferson County at 4:15 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office. He was pronounced dead at 5:14 a.m.”
Police department complex, fencing, cop cars and vehicles fill the inside, tons of cop traffic in and out, building and cop body cams, and a dead body inside one of the police vans and they say the van was broken into, had no clue of a dead body in it and ruled it ‘not suspicious’ immediately.
Bullshit.
This is who was inside that van and there is a dirty cop somewhere in the bushes, maybe more than one.
The body found was that of:
Christina Shawntell Nance (29 years old)
Ms. Nance had been arrested by the Huntsville Police TWELVE (12) times over the past decade, most recently in March, 2021. Most of the charges were for disorderly conduct and other non-violent misdemeanor crimes.
Appears the HPD and/or MCS and MC Jail has even altered at least one of the records, the first arrest where she was 19 and got youthful offender status but the age shown today is 29, her current age, her age at death. They also put her same photo in the 2011 arrest jail record as the March 2021 photo. What the hell? The jail isn’t supposed to show a photo of a youthful offender at all. But it certainly would be the very same photo as 2021. Can you say cover-up?
Christina is someone’s daughter, granddaughter, sister, cousin, aunt, friend. And they are surely grieving her loss and asking a damn lot of questions.
You can bet money, most likely she was again arrested and some cop purposely or otherwise, left her in that van to die. And be assured people at HPD know and they are covering it up. And whomever is responsible will not be held accountable.
What the hell is wrong with our local law enforcement, every damn agency, what the hell is wrong with them? And with the judicial system, especially the district attorney and his office, that cover it all up.
Let’s hope this family lawyers up with Ben Crump or Hank Sherrod or someone equally skilled at smelling and seeing bullshit when it’s in our faces.
Some cops and deputies and others need to go to prison for this.
Bring in the national new outlets. Something is very wrong and the big dogs need to be investigating this case as murder or manslaughter or wrongful death.
BE SURE to look at all the comments below on this site, even if you only see the shared original post. Just click the site name and find the post near the top of the timeline. It’s important additional information.
Today, September 9, 2021, marks the 50 year anniversary of the Attica Rebellion that claimed the lives of almost 40 people for the sake of human rights and human dignity. A full half a century since the gauntlet was thrown down and change was demanded from the revolutionaries, visionaries, activists, organizers and ordinary yet extraordinary men at Attica.
On September 9, 2016, five years ago and 45 years after the Attica Rebellion, the Free Alabama Movement acknowledged the legacy of those who sacrificed before us by taking action to organize the September 9, 2016 Nationwide Work Strikes, Boycotts, Protests and Social Media Campaigns.This organizing effort resulted in the largest prison-led strike in US History. We, like our predecessors, were being denied basic human rights and our dignity and self respect were being challenged by a system bent on destroying us. There was no better way to honor the Attica sacrifice than by taking action in the Spirit of Attica.
Since the Free Alabama Movement’s contributions to the struggle began in 2014 and especially our national campaign in 2016,, we’ve seen the rise of a “national” Prisoner’s Human Rights Movement being led from the inside unlike anything we’ve seen before. We mark fifty years since Attica and five years since the 2016 national action by reaffirming our resoluteness to destroy the same system that remains committed to destroying us.
From New York to California to Texas to Alabama and all points in between blood marks the path of resistance behind these walls and fences, in the dungeons and cages. We remember those who set the example at Attica fifty years ago by continuing to embrace and love the Spirit of Resistance and Sacrifice that has travelled with us from the Motherland, rose up at Attica in 1971, spread itself across the nation in 2016, made countless appearances in prisons across the nation, and continues to inspire action today. We must make everyday Attica; that is the only way we win!
IFA ( Inmates For Action ) Prison Organization, Chagina (George Dobbins), Yukeena (Tommy Dotson) and Frank X. Moore Assassinations
Lest We Forget – April 26, 1975: Inmates For Action (IFA) member, Frank X. Moore killed by officials in Escambia county jail in Alabama
Alabama’s prisons were overcrowded and prisoners were routinely denied basic items such as clean drinking water and eating utensils, while being subjected to violence and extended periods of solitary confinement. To call attention to their demands for improved conditions, prisoners organized as Inmates for Action (IFA), and engaged in work stoppages and strikes in Alabama’s Atmore and Holman prisons. IFA also led classes for prisoners on subjects such as Revolutionary Theory and Black History. In response to prisoner activism, prison guards tortured and murdered IFA leaders Chagina (George Dobbins), Yukeena (Tommy Dotson) and Frank X. Moore. Furthermore, guards continued to deny access to necessities, and attempted to repress continued organizing among the prisoners. Outside of prison, the Committee for Prisoner Support in Birmingham (CPSB) and the Atmore-Holman Defense Committee planned demonstrations, assisted with legal strategy in support of IFA and campaigned for accountability for the murders.
The IFA was founded in the Alabama prison slave system at the Atmore State Prison (now Fountain Correctional Facility) in the late 1960s/early 1970s. The politics of the IFA were the politics of the times: a little socialism, black nationalism/revolutionary nationalism/cultural nationalism, and anti-capitalism and anti-racism. The IFA was mainly composed of black prisoners, but I know at least one white prisoner was a member of the IFA. The IFA was a formation of the times, a time when young black people had become disillusioned with the Civil Rights Movement. This was the generation that birthed Black Liberation and saw the politics of the Civil Rights Movement as bankrupt of any ideas to liberate black people from the white supremacist, racist, capitalist political power structure. Revolution was in the air and seemed possible.
Following the footsteps of the Black Liberation Movement organizations on the streets, the IFA established political, cultural, and general education classes to educate the prisoner population. Many prisoners at that time in the South couldn’t read and write, and the white supremacist power structure wanted to keep it that way. This was also a time when there were no black prison guards, wardens, or commissioners, not that it means anything because today the black prison guards, wardens, commissioners are just as brutal and fucked up as their white counterparts were then.
The IFA intervened in an attempt to change this backwards and predatory culture into a culture of unity and revolution. In fact, the IFA was instrumental in stopping the practice of prisoners keeping count of how many prisoners were in the prison for the guards. They openly challenged the rape culture. In 1971, the IFA staged a successful workstrike at Atmore and Holman prisons in protest of the beating and murder of prisoners on the workfarm. That was unheard of at the time in Alabama prisons. The IFA was so successful in educating prisoners as to who their true enemy was, that when they transferred Mafundi to Holman and placed him in the all-white dorm in the hopes of the white prisoners killing him, the white prisoners joined Mafundi in rioting.
In 1974, IFA members took prison guards hostage at knifepoint in the Atmore prison lockup unit and declared the action “a revolution.” After subduing the two guards they proceeded to open all the cell doors of IFA members who were in the lockup at the time. Most of them were there for “inciting a riot” or “assault against a guard.” They then began to exact “revolutionary justice” on all those prisoners who had been working with the white racist prison guards selling water and ice to other prisoners in the stifling hot lockup cells.
In the aftermath of this “revolution” by IFA members, one white guard lay dead, another seriously wounded, and a number of prisoners were seriously injured by IFA members. The warden and prison guards stormed the lockup unit with shotguns and rifles ablazing, wounding some of the prisoners. Johnny Imani Harris received the death penalty for the murder of the guard, Lincoln Kambui Heard received a life sentence and Oscar Johnson received thirty years. Others also received sentences for taking part in the “revolution.” Johnny Imani Harris eventually had his death sentence overturned and was released from prison.
The IFA didn’t limit their activities and organizing to the prisons. Richard Mafundi Lake and other ex-cons who were IFA members took their organization and activities to the streets of Birmingham and other smaller cities on Alabama. In Birmingham, where they were most active, they monitored the police with scanners and intervened when the police attempted to make arrests. Many shootouts between IFA and police occurred. They held community meetings to organize against police brutality and racism on the part of city officials.
They didn’t forget their brothers left in the prisons. They organized family transportation to the prisons, they aided escapes from Atmore, Holman and some road kamps. They created the Atmore/Holman Brothers support committee to support those still in the prisons facing new charges for assault and murder on prison guards. They IFA had a motto – “Kill one of our, we kill two of yours.” And they lived by that. Many IFA members were killed inside and outside the prisons. George Dobbins, Tommy Dotson, Charles Beasley, Frank X. Moore is just a few of the IFA members murdered by the state inside and outside the prisons.
The state saw the IFA as too powerful and influential in the prisons and gaining respectability in the streets and started shipping many of them to the federal system. Anthony Paradise, Lincoln Heard, Youngblood, Fleetwood, Mustang, and others were sent to Marion, Lewisburg, Leavenworth, Atlanta federal prisons. source: https://itsgoingdown.org/black-august-remembering-inmates-for-action/
Tameka was sentenced to Life in a Mississippi prison for possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana She’s 46 and has been there since she was 34
Sign petition https://www.change.org/FreeTamekaDrummer Contact governor@govreeves.ms.gov. 601-359-3150 Commute Tameka’s Sentence End life sentences for drug possession
When Madison County Sheriff’s Deputies executed a search warrant on the residence belonging to Fred Batts and Perrion Roberts on Monday, March 29, 2001, the first item of evidence they logged onto the Property Sheet was a bulletproof vest.
Sergeant Charles Berry testified that this bulletproof vest was found behind a chair in the den area of the Batts/Roberts residence and that it had a blood smear on it. The only known photograph of the vest shows it sitting on top of a stove, and there are no known photographs of the vest behind a chair or account of who moved it. Sgt. Berry said that he had been told that DNA testing showed that the blood found on the vest matched Andre Horton’s blood. Sgt. Berry did not say where the vest was or who did DNA testing on it. During closing arguments in the case, Madison County District Attorney Robert Lee Broussard stated that this DNA was the best proof you can get:
When former co-defendant Fred Batts turned state witness, he testified that the bulletproof vest belonged to Melvin Ray.
Trial testimony of Fred Batts, former co-defendant who turned state witness
Yet, we have the same problem with the bulletproof vest that we have with all of the other evidence in the case: no one has EVER actually seen the bulletproof vest. It was never brought into the courtroom. No person from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences came to court to testify about performing DNA testing on the vest. No one seems to know where on the vest the blood was located or how big or small the blood sample was.
The Ray family uncovered interesting information about the bullet proof vest, and they say they have irrefutable proof that Fred Batts lied when he testified that Melvin owned this bulletproof vest. They say that the Serial Number on the vest, #031914, tells a powerful story and that it proves who is the true owner.
Fred Batts was released from prison on February 8, 1999. Prior to his release, Fred Batts was assigned to Red Eagle Honor Camp in Wetumpka, Alabama. As a trustee, Fred Batts worked at the Alabama State Troopers Association on Coliseum Boulevard. At this location was a salvage yard where wrecked State Trooper vehicles and old police equipment is kept, including worn-out bulletproof vests. All of these vests are blue in color.
The bulletproof vest found at the Batts/Roberts residence on 3203 Rita Lane was blue in color. The Ray Family says that through phone calls and other methods they were able to verify that the bulletproof vest manufacturer confirmed that they distributed the exact same model of bulletproof vest found at the murder scene and allegedly with Andre’s blood on it, to the Alabama State Troopers Association in Alabama.
After the press conference, the bulletproof vest will be one of the items of evidence that the Ray Family will be demanding that District Attorney Broussard account for and produce. They say there are other issues with the bulletproof vest, but for right now they are demanding to see the bulletproof vest in question for the first time. They want to see the chain of custody records and all DNA reports about the vest, and they particularly want to know, where on the vest was Andre’s blood?
The fact that this vest potentially belongs to a police department raises serious questions about why Madison County DA Broussard allowed it to disappear before trial, and why no forensic scientist ever came to trial to testify about the blood smear and DNA testing done on the vest.
Yet another person had been found dead in ADOC. A 27 year old young man serving a 5 year sentence was found dead in his assigned cell at W. E. Donaldson CF yesterday. This death occurred one day after another individual was found dead at Alabama’s Bibb County CF.
At the same time, at least two Alabama prisons are on lockdown as they are mired in violent beatings and almost daily stabbings.
The bottom is falling out, and we expect the conditions to get worse at a rapid pace. It’s beyond clear that the DOJ isn’t going to act soon enough and State leaders aren’t going to do anything.
A white male has been pronounced dead at Bibb Co Correctional Facility. In the image you can see the yellow crime scene tape but you also see other people still milling around as if everything is normal.
The fact that just one bed rack over you see multiple people going about their way shows that ADOC does not take deaths seriously. We are in trouble people, and it’s only getting worse because our legislatures have no plans of repealing laws that will released anyone.
ATTENTION: FAM will be issuing a public statement concerning an important change in position concerning the term and use of work strikes.
Our position on work strikes is about to fundamentally change. This concept has served FAM well but the time has come for advancement. We can no longer embrace characteristics of a labor movement as we are fighting for our lives against a vicious enemy. We must embrace tactics that accurately reflect upon the ideals, principles and objectives of our struggle for freedom, human rights, and human dignity. The concept and ideology of a “work strike” is no longer capable of bringing revolutionary change. We have to assess our position on the battlefield and make changes where necessary to win. A full statement will be forthcoming concerning this important change, and FAM forever remain on the frontline.
We need the entire historical application of this law for every single person it has been applied to. From 2021 backward to 1977. The public cannot participate in the debate if we aren’t informed of ALL of the material facts.
Further debate on Representative Chris England’s House Bill 107 calling for the repeal of Alabama’s Habitual Felony Offender Act is set to take place soon in the House Judiciary Committee.
The Free Alabama Movement is trying to learn more information about the group of people sentenced to life without parole as a habitual offender. This additional information is vital to any legitimate debate about why this law should be repealed. We also need to know more about the historical application of this law.
According to a report by Alabamians For Fair Justice, 75% of all individuals sentenced to life without parole as a habitual offender are Black.
Ronald Mckeithen. Over 37 years for convenience store robbery.
This racial distinction is consistent with other laws enacted during the tough-on-crime era. For example, in 1997, a special report to Congress by the U. S. Sentencing Commission found that Black people accounted for nearly 90% of all people convicted of federal crack offenses, even though the majority of crack users are white. Additionally, from 1988 to 1995, federal prosecutors did not bring a single white person to trial under the crack provisions of federal law in 17 states.
Based on our math from the limited resources we have access to, appx. 750 people in Alabama are sentenced to life without parole as habitual offenders. This number needs to be accurately determined. We also want to know which counties imposed each of these sentences of life without parole.
The ACLU’s Smart Justice Campaign reported that 527 of the appx. 750 LWOP sentences are for non-homicide offenses.
We need to know the demographics of these 527 people sentenced to life without parole for a non-homicide offense. Many of the recent high profile cases where LWOP was rescinded (Archie Hamlet, Jerald Sanders (LWOP for stealing a $16.00 bicycle) Geneva Cooley, Ira Coney, Alvin Kennard, Flavius Henderson, Ronald McKeithen, Derek Jenkins, Stanley Washington, and several more) involved Black people.
Archie Hamlet served over 22 years on a LWOP for 14 lbs of marijuana before his sentence was reduced in 2017.
Of the appx. 527 still serving LWOP for a non-homicide offense, what were they convicted of? What type of prior felonies were used to enhance? How much time has each of them already served? We also need to know the racial composition of this group because data suggests that Black people are disproportionately and over sentenced to LWOP. How many of these non-homicide cases involve Black people?
One of the more well known and egregious instances of injustice concerning a life without parole as a habitual offender involves a Black man, Willed Simmons. Clearly, racial justice is an important factor to consider when debating whether the habitual offender law needs to be repealed.
Willie Simmons was convicted of first-degree robbery for wrestling a man to the ground over $9.00 and sentenced to life without parole in 1982. Simmons, an Army veteran, became addicted to drugs while stationed outside of the United States. He was prosecuted under Alabama’s habitual offender law, which is similar to other three-strikes laws. Simmons had three prior convictions
Furthermore, it appears that less than 250 people combined have life without parole for some form of a homicide or other crime. We are very interested in learning the specifics of each case, what type of prior felony convictions were used to enhance, as well as the demographics of this group, especially as it relates to the 75%?
There are many other unanswered questions about this law that needs to be known. For example, what are the prior felonies used for enhancement purposes? Some enhancement priors, such as minor drug possession, shoplifting, and other theft offenses, are now reclassified as Class D offenses, and can no longer be used for enhancement purposes. How many of these felonies are still being used today to maintain these sentences?
Other important unknown factors include:
1. What offense was each individual convicted of when they received the sentence of life without parole?
2. If convicted today under current Alabama law, what would the sentencing options be?
3. What prior felony convictions were used to enhance and how old were the prior felony convictions?
4. Were any felonies used to enhance that are no longer considered felonies under current Alabama law?
5. How many prior enhancement felonies were for offenses like burglary, shoplifting, check/debits cards, theft, minor drug possession or sales, or other similar offenses?
6. How many people serving life without parole have already served at least 20 years or more?
7. How many people serving life without parole as a habitual offender were sentenced after being convicted for their first felony offense involving serious physical injury or death (all priors convictions were for property crimes or drug offenses)?
We need research help to get answers to these and other questions. If you are interested in assisting, please share information to freealabamamovement@gmail.com under the title Habitual Felony Offender Act.
On January 30, 2021, four Black men at Donaldson Correctional Facility were targeted for abuse and brutality by officers and sergeants; the four men were Ephan Moore, Robert Earl Council, Wilbert Smith, and Derrol Shaw. Officers attacked and severely beat Moore and Council, who sustained critical injuries.
Moore has reported to his family that officers beat him in two separate locations, once in the dorm and a second time while he was handcuffed to a wheelchair in the infirmary. So far, Moore has had two surgeries – with more scheduled – after being stomped, beaten, and struck in the head with an object that is being described as a meat cleaver wielded by Officer Brown. Moore’s family reports his injuries as an orbital and nose fracture, a broken jaw, two broken hands, and at least 10 staples in his head, among other injuries.
Council’s injuries, which include serious head and face trauma and broken ribs, were so severe that he had to be airlifted to UAB Trauma Unit. As of February 2, 2021, Wilbert Smith’s whereabouts are unknown and his status is the same — he was believed to have been escorted out by members of CERT (Correctional Emergency Response Team) who arrived at Donaldson after the prison was put on lockdown just after the beatings of Moore and Council. Shaw was forced to defend himself from the brutal attack and was able to escape serious injury, although he was overwhelmed by the chemical agent that was sprayed.
A few media outlets, taking word primarily from the corrupt, brutal Alabama Department of Corrections, have begun putting out articles on this attack, but focusing more on two guards who were allegedly stabbed — witnesses say Ofc. Brown sustained injuries from the meat cleaver he used to butcher Moore — and downplaying the injuries of the Donaldson 4 as if they were minor. It is worth reiterating that Ephan Moore was struck three times in the head with an object described as a free world meat cleaver carried by one of the officers; eyewitnesses report seeing his head split open all the way down his face; he was brutally attacked after having a mental health crisis in his dormitory. Sgt. Binder – one of the attackers – had previously beaten Moore, according to a civil complaint about the incident.
Robert Earl Council (also known as Kinetik Justice) was attempting to de-escalate the situation and was pleading with guards to stop beating on Moore before retreating to his cell after being overcome with the chemical spray. Sgt. Milton and several other officers stalked Council to his cell where they then struck him in the face with a metal baton. Sgt. Binder and Ofc. Griffin then proceeded to strike Council in the head with batons, rendering him unconscious. While unconscious, Council was beaten profusely then dragged out of his cell by his feet, leaving a trail of blood. Images of a vast pool of Council’s blood inside his cell were captured in widely circulated video.
See video:
Council is the third member of the Free Alabama Movement to be beaten or targeted for attack at Donaldson. In 2016, James Pleasant was beaten while housed in the “hot bay” unit by the same officers.
Bennu Hannibal Ra-Sun had a hit put in his life by the warden and captain at Donaldson in 2016. He was also harassed by Officer Binder and others, and was severely beaten by Commissioner Dunn’s hit squad in 2015.
See video of Bennu Hannibal Ra-Sun beaten by officers:
Meanwhile, the officers who were allegedly stabbed and received “multiple other injuries” were treated first at the onsite medical facility, and then at a local hospital before being released. These alleged injuries are superficial at best.
In response to the most recent attack, ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn has announced his intent to implement the use of body cameras on supervisors at the prison, and is conducting a review of staffing to determine if adjustments are needed. This is an outrageous, ineffective response to the ongoing brutality at Donaldson Correctional Facility, most of which has been documented by incarcerated activists in the facility, led by the Free Alabama Movement. How are body cameras supposed to be effective when officers can walk around the prison with a meat cleaver, brutally beating on other human beings and then facing no consequences? There has been no indication that any of these officers will face charges or even lose their jobs for nearly killing two people.
Meanwhile, officers wasted no time charging men at Donaldson with unfounded disciplinaries related to the assault. This brutality has been documented for years, so what good would body cameras be? Additionally, Dunn has requested the FBI’s Northern District Office assist in an investigation into the incident. But this assault occurred in the midst of a years-long Department of Justice investigation into ADOC which has yet to prevent such brutality from happening.
More than a Decade of Abuse Recorded at Donaldson
For a full understanding of this particularly vicious attack, it is necessary for the press and the public to understand the full scope and long history of brutality at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility. It took a federal lawsuit to force Donaldson to remove a sign from the back entrance of the prison that greeted new arrivals with the ominous greeting: “Welcome to the House of Pain.” The pain administered at the prison more than lived up to this “creed.”
Most of this brutality has been documented heavily in the last 7 years since the formation of the Free Alabama Movement, but it also goes back before then; in 2009, a class-action lawsuit known as “Hicks vs. Hetzel” was filed on behalf of those incarcerated at Donaldson for the inhumane conditions allowed to persist there — at that time, Donaldson was at 173% capacity, overcrowding that led to illness, an increase in violence between prisoners, and increased brutality from officers. Donaldson is designed to house only 700 people, and is regularly overcrowded and understaffed; as of 2020, the capacity is 1,500 people. In this era of COVID-19, overcrowding effectively turns Donaldson into a petri dish and superspreader for the virus- at least two people incarcerated there have died of the virus, though the number is likely to be higher. This is another failure of the ADOC and more blood on their hands.
On March 14, 2016, following two back-to-back riots at Holman Prison in Atmore, Alabama, five men: Amir Davis, Antonio Spencer, Kendrick Gaskin, Kevin Etheridge, and Tyreke (last name unknown) were transferred from Holman to Donaldson. Upon arrival, all five men were beaten sadistically and sexually assaulted by over 10 guards at Donaldson. In an interview, Kendrick Gaskin describes how they were taken to a back gate at Donaldson, removed from the van in handcuffs, shackles, and body chains, and then, one by one, taken to a shack where they were brutally beaten, sexually assaulted by stomping them in their genital area, and how the nurses in the infirmary either refused to document their injuries or had simply written that they had “fallen off the van.” When word of these horrific attacks reached the family, Commissioner Price and the wardens of Donaldson began another process of a cover up, which succeeded; none of the officers were charged or even terminated for these beatings and sexual assaults.
See interview of Kendrick Gaskin Part 1:
Gaskin Interview Part 2:
This culture and customary sexual abuse at Donaldson is well documented in the lawsuit filed by Sammy Duncan, whose testicle had to be removed after he was sexually assaulted by the “Donaldson Stomp” and beaten.
The officer who carried out this attack, Lt. Jenkins, has a long and sordid history of brutality and violence. Jenkins has been promoted several times during his tenure under Commissioner Dunn, showing a pattern of reward for brutality at Donaldson.
Additionally, there have been multiple lawsuits brought against Donaldson Prison and ADOC on behalf of the men incarcerated there who have been beaten, brutalized, and raped by officers. In 2017, Jeffrey Paul Eugene Stout was severely beaten in the notorious “hot-bay.” A second threat to beat him again, made by officer Charles Willis just days later, was partly captured on video.
See video of Jeffery Stout being threatened here:
There have been multiple murders of men at Donaldson by guards, all of which have been covered up by the wardens, the Commissioner, and the ADOC as a whole; one of the more notable cases was Steven Davis, who was beaten to death by officers in the “Behavioral Modification” or “hot-bay” dorm in 2019, which is a newer, horrific addition to Donaldson. His killer, Ofc. Gadson, was promoted by Commissioner Dunn less than six months after this murder.
Just in the past year, two more at least two other men were brutally killed by institutional malice and neglect. On June 22, 2020 Darnell McMillian died in a suicide watch cell after reports indicate that officers pepper sprayed him and locked him in the cell, where he asphyxiated. And in December 2020, Tommy Lee Rutledge was left in a 101 degree cell in a mental health unit to die of hyperthermia, in the midst of a cold December night. His body was found facing the window and with an internal temperature of 109 degrees.
See video of other men beaten to death:
In the last decade men incarcerated at Donaldson Correctional facility have filed dozens of lawsuits detailing the use of unconstitutional excessive force by prison staff. Below are just two of their stories:
Adrian Dunning: On July 5th, 2018, Officers entered Dunning’s cell in the hotbay to collect him for a visit to the healthcare unit. Upon entering the cell they sprayed him with mace and proceeded to beat him with their feet, fists, and batons. The defendants then dragged the plaintiff out of his cell and into the main area and continued beating him, in view of other prisoners. Fearing for his life, Dunning wrestled free from the officers, and climbed the stairs up to the top tier. Several of the defendants followed. Dunning climbed over the rail, and tried to scale his way back down to the floor away from the defendants. Officer Maclemore hit Dunning’s hand with a baton, causing Dunning to lose grip and fall around 12 feet to the ground. The defendants surrounded him again on the lower level and continued the beating. Dunning sustained the following injuries: broken hand, femur, nose as well as blunt trauma to the front of his head and eyes. He was medi-evacuated to the University of Alabama hospital where he received emergency surgery. This event is described in the federally filed complaint.
Christopher Jordan Jackson:
On April 22, 2016, Captain Baldwin and the CERT team, including Officer Edmonds and Officer Melton came to Jackson’s cell, which was flooded from the toilet. Angered by the state of his cell, the officers ordered Jackson to strip, and then proceeded to beat him while he was naked on the unsanitary floor. The officers used their batons and stomped on his body. The beating was so severe Jackson defecated on the floor. Following the assault, Jackson received 16 staples to his head. Breaking protocol, the nurses and officers refused to photograph any injuries other than his head, and prohibited Jackson from writing an incident report. Two weeks later his hand was X-rayed, revealing broken bones. Prison officials refused to send him to an outside hospital, nor put his broken hand in a cast. Jackson’s efforts to reach the physical abuse department, the FBI, and the DOJ received no response. This event is described in a federally filed complaint.
Also see Dewey Buttram video interview about his abuse at Donaldson here:
Also see video interview of Zachery Wilson here:
The public needs to know that the statements being issued by Commissioner Dunn are damage control and an attempt to cover up a slaughter at the hands of his correctional officer gang. The call for the FBI to get involved in the investigation alongside the ADOC’S Investigative Division smacks of a fraud, as the DOJ has already castigated this agency as part of the culture of violence and corruption within ADOC. The solution to this problem begins with accountability, starting with the termination and arrest of these officers for assault and attempted murder. Additional measures must include:
Return Robert Council and Ephan Moore to a free world hospital where they can receive appropriate medical care and rehabilitation services
Commissioner Dunn needs to be fired or forced to resign effective immediately
The investigation into this matter needs to include advocacy groups, independent counsel and independent media representatives, not simply state and federal officials.
The families of each of these men must be allowed to visit them immediately. The families and/or legal representatives of all four men must be allowed daily contact indefinitely to be assured of their well-being.
The officers involved must be terminated immediately and charged, including but not limited to all wardens and Sergeant Binder, Sergeant Brown, Sergeant Melton, and Officer Griffin.
Each of the Donaldson 4 must be allowed unrestricted access to an independent media source accompanied by counsel of their own choosing pursuant to Adm Reg. to tell their story if they see fit.
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Special thanks to our National Freedom Movement Coalition supporter Workers World Party for their outstanding work and commitment to this effort. They can be reached at http://workers.org
Imagine opening your front door and finding a man lying on your porch bleeding from several stab wounds while screaming for help as he’s being viciously attacked. Imagine not being able to open your screen door due to a body that’s pressed against it, beaten unconscious with a sock that had two combination locks inside. Imagine your next door neighbors getting into a heated argument over drugs that caused one to literally gouge the other’s eye out, or your neighbor across the street murdering a guy then carving letters on his forehead after he dies. Imagine sharing a meal with friends in your dining room and someone approaches one of your guests from behind and plunges a knife into their neck, causing blood to gush out and land on your face and food. Or imagine someone’s bottom lip being bitten into and ripped off, and blood flowing between the fingers of the victim. Now imagine such brutality occurring in your community so frequently that you’re no longer shocked or horrified, but instead you find it more an inconvenience than a terrible tragedy. This is the community I’d lived in for over 35 years.
Within two years, there had been 19 homicides in the Alabama prison system, causing it to have the highest homicide rate in the country. There are daily assaults, often so severe that ambulances and helicopters are a constant necessity in order to save lives. Alabama’s prison culture resembles a jungle, where you’re either predator or prey, victim or victor. When a lion jumps on the back of an animal, grabs it by the neck, smashes it to the ground, breaks its back, it’s not doing a bad thing. It’s doing what’s appropriate, what’s in its nature. Survival. We’ve all experienced a fight-or-flight response to danger. But what if there is nowhere to flee, that your life or death is determined by how brutal you’re capable of being. Requests for safety and protection too often fall on deaf ears, and can easily tag you a snitch, which would put you in even greater danger. And if the prison officials are forced to get involved before there’s serious bloodshed, you will be asked to sign a living agreement, promising to end the quarrel or be placed in segregation. But once you’ve seen how someone can magically remove their handcuffs and attack another prisoner who’s still wearing his, you realize that segregation isn’t safe, that you need to learn the trick with the handcuffs. Some of the savagery I’d witnessed would cause an average person to question their sanity, to call their Mama and say I want to come home. It’s as if an apocalyptic beast is roaming these prisons with an unquenchable appetite for blood, mostly black men’s blood. And the officials in Montgomery are contributing to their demise by pretending the bestiality that thrives within the walls is under control, but it’s not. The overcrowdedness, the mind-numbing procedures, the rules and regulations that are enforced by too many racist ego-tripping officers, as well as black officers who believe they must be just as cruel to prove they are not like us, each ill-equipped to handle the unrestrained authority they possess. Prisons are supposed to be about rehabilitation, about preparing us to be productive members of society. But instead it cripples and stagnates growth, causing degradation, anger and frustration, often creating a worse version of the person who arrived. Some may feel that this is what they deserve, that they lost their right to be treated as human beings once they broke the law, not worthy of any consideration nor second chances. But one should not make a final judgment on a person until he or she is dead, because, until then, there’s room for change, to be better and do better. Yes, there are many in prison that should never be placed in society ever again. Yet there are so many good, responsible, changed men who simply want another chance to prove their worth. But the way things look, they may not survive to receive that second chance. The noose was so tight around my, that it took Alabama Appleseed and the DA to pull it. Yet I’m afraid for those that are still there that can’t breath.
Lest We Forget – April 26, 1975: Inmates For Action (IFA) member, Frank X. Moore killed by officials in Escambia county jail in Alabama Alabama’s prisons were overcrowded and prisoners were routinely denied basic items such as clean drinking water and eating utensils, while being subjected to violence and extended periods of solitary confinement. To […]
A $3 Billion Dollar Wasteland is Not What Alabama Needs
#NoNewPrisons
#NoNewPlantations
#ADOCisaCriminalEnterprise
Over the past several years nearly everyone in Alabama has heard about the many plans and attempts to build new prisons. We, the now- 23,000+ men, women, and (far too many) children incarcerated in the Alabama Department of Corrections have heard about these new prisons too.
We know that the public does not want them. We know that the Alabama Legislature refused to budget them. We know that families who have been extorted, lost loved ones, or don’t know when their loved ones are coming home don’t want them. We also know that the residents of Brierfield and Tallassee, many college students, and thousands of other Alabamians don’t want them either. I can safely say that all 23,000 of us and our families, who are ALL struggling to survive in these death camps, don’t want them either.
Yet, despite this overwhelming public opposition, private prison corporations have signed contracts to build them anyway. What is really going on? Why are corporations and publicly elected officials willing to defy public sentiment and build them anyway? And, why are they willing to invest so much money into a prison system that is already in a deadly crisis?
We all know that we should follow the money on this one but not just the money changing hands in the secret contracts. No, the real money to follow will be after the prisons are complete. The collect calls, medical co-pays, the fees, usury prices for canteens purchases, incentive packages, and cheap tablets the ADOC is rolling out. These are the associated industries that use tax dollars to build the complexes but then exploit them for every bloodsucking penny they can collect as ransom from families. And let’s not forget the biggest prize of them all: the free labor and the factories that will produce hundreds of millions of dollars worth of goods and services every year. These profit motives render the dissent of citizens as irrelevant.
It is this greed that is causing so many problems, claiming so many lives and contributing to the public health crisis we are facing because we have an outdated ideology running an outdated prison system.
From a humanitarian perspective, the ADOC was a failed institution before COVID-19 hit. Since the pandemic arrived, everything has gotten worse. For those of us living the nightmare, we don’t see how new prisons that will house more people for the next 30 years will make anything better. We haven’t heard how the new prisons plan to deal with the existing problems. Nor have we heard how the new prisons will help us deal with the traumas we are experiencing in the current system. From a practical standpoint, all we can see from the inside is how these new facilities are nothing more than our next death camps; the places they’ll send us to die over the next 30 years. We do not want a $3 billion dollar casket. No New Prisons !!!
We reach these conclusions based on what we are witnessing, experiencing and living through on a day-to-day basis. Under Commissioner Jefferson Dunn’s leadership and his “culture of violence”, the ADOC is now the murder capital of the entire State of Alabama, and the murder capital over all prison systems in the nation. It was not like this before he arrived, and there were at least 6 thousand more people in the system in 2015 than there are now. Commissioner Dunn’s officers are routinely on the news for sexually assaulting or beating men and women to death. There are also weekly news reports of officers arrested for attempting to bring drugs into the prisons, drug overdose deaths, suicides, etc. Alabama’s prisons are so infested with drugs, that drug overdose deaths are now deemed “natural causes” on death certificates.
The U.S. Department of Justice states in a July 2020 Investigation Report that Commissioner Jefferson Dunn maintains control of the ADOC through a “culture of violence.” Every single person in ADOC custody has been harmed by this “culture of violence.” Our concern is that this “culture of violence” is transferable, and building new prisons will only transfer a humanitarian crisis into the new communities instead of solving historic, systemic, racial and cultural problems that have plagued the Alabama prison system since after the Civil War.
Since October 2019, ADOC correctional officers have beaten at least four men to death and gassed a fifth person to death. At the same time, the ADOC leads the nation in homicide rates, while ranking among national leaders in suicide, drug overdose, and COVID-19 death rates in its prisons. This is what a “culture of violence” and corruption will get you. The Alabama Department of Corrections is a place where death occurs frequently. New prisons won’t solve these old problems.
On January 30, 2021, correctional officers beat two men so severely that they had to be ambulance and air-lifted to a hospital just to save their lives. One week later, on February 8-9, in a 12-hour span two more lives were cut short by the “culture of violence.” A third person, over 70 years old and posing absolutely no threat to society whatsoever, died as well.
All of this leads to a great amount of trauma, stress, and other challenges associated with living in an environment like this every day. Many of us are released back into society carrying these invisible and untreated injuries with us. We have yet to see how the $3 billion dollar prison plan will address these longstanding and traumatic injuries.
There are also additional problems that three new prisons will bring to their new communities. For example,
• Officer Matthew Moore, 50, was a serial rapist employed by ADOC for over a decade. Moore was convinced on multiple counts in Georgia, including aggravated sodomy, aggravated sexual battery, and aggravated assault after kidnapping and raping several women. Authorities also state they have DNA evidence implicating Moore in additional sex crimes in Alabama and Florida.
• Over 70 correctional officers arrested for drug trafficking or other attempts to transport illegal contraband throughout Alabama communities and into a prison
• In 2014, the US DOJ found that over a 20-year period, at least half of all correctional officers who worked at Tutwiler Women’s Prison sexually assaulted the women incarcerated there. No criminal charges were filed and not a single officer was arrested. Many of these sexual predators will be roaming around the new communities undetected.
See US DOJ Report, January 14, 2014. Not a single person was arrested or fired for these sex crimes.
In addition, there are public health issues that routinely emanate from the prisons: ADOC’s abysmal health and safety record, including its Covid-19 response; frequent outbreaks of hepatitis, tuberculosis, and scabies. We are awaiting word of how these new prisons are being designed to deal with pandemics, epidemics, and other widespread infections that threaten closed populations. We don’t see any plan to protect our lives or the lives of those in the communities where we reside in today’s prisons, and we don’t see one in the plans for tomorrow’s prisons either.
The State of Alabama does not need new prisons to address its current prison crisis; instead, Alabama needs to identify the laws, policies and practices that led to the crisis. This starts with historical facts that connect the prison system to the institution of slavery, especially Article 1, Sec. 32 of the Alabama Constitution of 1901 . Article 1, Section 32 of the Alabama Constitution contains the provision that created an exception to the complete abolition of slavery, by preserving slavery as punishment for crime. This new form of slavery would be managed and ran by the prison system. Following passage of this law, Alabama prisons began filling up with Black bodies and became work camps under slave-like conditions for people convicted of a crime.
Then there is Alabama’s habitual felony offender act , a law that has been used to fill up Alabama prisons to the point where we now have the most overcrowded, underfunded, and corrupt system in the nation. Historical data evidences a need for social and racial justice in the Alabama Criminal Justice system, especially with the death penalty being disproportionately used against poor Black people, and the fact that over 70% of all people sentenced to life without parole under the habitual offender law are Black. These and other historical issues extend beyond the prison walls and must be addressed by the Alabama Legislature. This includes removing funds from ADOC’s budget and redirecting those funds towards healing, rebuilding, and rehabilitating those injured by the current system.
Neither Governor Ivey nor any other state leader can show us proof of any improvements made to the ADOC over the past 30 years that justify committing an additional 3 billion dollars to the system for another 30 years. However, the arc of human history shows unequivocally the ability of human beings to evolve, get better and reach higher stages of evolution in life if given the resources and a chance. So why are we going backwards by building new prisons before we first invest in people?
An Inside Perspective on Governor Kay Ivey’s plan to build new prisons.
Reports out of Donaldson prison in Bessemer, Ala, that a second person is dead overnight in ADOC custody. Late last night, a death occurred at St. Clair prison. The ADOC was found to have a culture of violence that extends to all levels of the administration and throughout the prison system. Yet two more lives are now gone while no one in ADOC is being held accountable.
Free Alabama Movement is calling on the DOJ to seek immediate relief in their pending litigation in the form of a declaration of a State of Emergency in the ADOC amidst the humanitarian crisis that is out of control.
On Saturday, April 3, 2021, the National Freedom Movement, in conjunction with other organizers, organizations, activists and advocates from around the US are joining the call to action for a 1,000,000 Families For Parole Rally at Parole Boards, Dept. of Corrections Headquarters, and/or State Capitols in states across the country.
America’s parole system is broken and failing to respond to the humanitarian crisis taking place in prisons across the country, leaving countless lives in danger. In the midst of a global pandemic and a humanitarian crisis throughout US jails, prisons and other places of incarceration, Parole Boards are guilty of exacerbating the crisis by denying parole due to bad parole laws and for political and financial reasons.
To bring our loved ones home, and for real change to occur, we must unite across the nation and demand changes to this broken and ineffective parole system. Federal parole must be reinstated, a mandatory parole criteria must be implemented nationwide to justify the billions of tax dollars being spent for “corrections”, an emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic has to be immediately instituted to save lives, and, among other demands, a 3-year limit on parole supervision must be implemented so that people who have successfully integrated back into society can get their lives back.
Participating states thus far include Alabama, Mississippi, Indiana, New York, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, Ohio, Indiana, and California.
Anyone interested in participating in this event or assisting in the planning and organizing should contact us immediately at:
We are concerned about Donaldson 4 member Mr. Wilbur Smith, and we need assistance in getting an update on his status and well-being. Please contact the ADOC and demand that they provide an update the status, location and health of Mr. Smith. As of this writing, there have been no reports on Mr. Smith and no one has been in contact with him. Please email us at 1nationalfreedommovement@gmail.com and provide updates.
On January 30, officers at Donaldson brutally beat Ephan Moore, a person known to have a mental illness, and Robert Earl Council (AKA Kinetik Justice), a freedom fighter known for his nonviolent organizing. Following the vicious assault, Moore and Council were left fighting for their lives, and the prison was locked down with officers continuing to beat and harass people incarcerated there, including Wilbert Smith and Derrol Shaw. This is only the latest in a long history of officer brutality at Donaldson CF and throughout the Department of Corrections.
The Department of Justice sued ADOC in December for, among other things, failing to prevent officer violence. They have authority to investigate and prosecute brutality against incarcerated people. We are calling on the DOJ to immediately terminate the officers involved in these attempted murders and to investigate the leadership at Donaldson and ADOC which has allowed this violence to continue unabated. This includes Commissioner Dunn, who has overseen the most brutal prison system in the US for years now without accountability. Read the full letter to the DOJ below, and join us in calling for justice for the men at Donaldson Correctional Facility and throughout ADOC.
To the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama and attorneys with the DOJ Special Litigation Section:
The undersigned organizations and individuals, unified and standing in solidarity around the nation, are calling for the immediate termination and arrest of officers involved in the attempted murders of Robert Earl Council, also known as Kinetik Justice, and mental health patient Ephan Moore, as well as those involved in the beating of Wilbert Smith and the use of excessive force against Derrol Shaw at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer on Saturday, January 30, 2021.
We further call for DOJ investigators and independent observers to be allowed immediate access to Donaldson to ensure that further retaliatory action is not taken against anyone incarcerated there, and that the family of all four of these men be allowed to visit them immediately, including Robert Council who remains in the hospital, even now, fighting for his life. Finally, the DOJ should immediately investigate the role of Commissioner Jefferson Dunn in responding to this and other incidents and consider removing him from leadership of ADOC.
Witnesses and disturbing video have shown that at least four officers – including Sgt. Binder, Sergeant Brown, and Sgt. Melton, and Officer Griffin – beat Mr. Council and Mr. Moore with batons and kicked them in the head until they were unresponsive. Eyewitness accounts state that Mr. Council was trying to defuse the situation when he was attacked from behind by armed officers. Videos show blood in and around the cell where he was dragged out by the feet, as well as a dislodged tooth that was found in the cell. Mr. Council was evacuated by emergency helicopter to a hospital in Birmingham, where he remains in intensive care. Witnesses stated that the initial blow to Mr. Moore’s head was so vicious that it split his face open, and that officers continued to punch and kick his head once he was on the ground. Mr. Moore’s whereabouts and condition are unknown at this time.
This is an extreme incident, but it is not an isolated one. The DOJ is well aware of the horrific and unconstitutional violence committed by Donaldson staff against the people incarcerated there and in other Alabama Department of Corrections facilities. In the DOJ’s recently filed lawsuit against the State of Alabama, the government acknowledges that ADOC fails to protect people in prison from excessive force from staff. The complaint singles out a 2019 incident where Donaldson officers killed Steven Davis. Mr. Davis was beaten beyond recognition by some of the very same officers that have now tried to kill Kinetik Justice and Ephan Moore, including Sgt. Joe Binder.
Just in the last year at Donaldson, at least two other men were brutally killed by institutional malice and neglect. On June 22, Darnell McMillian died in a suicide watch cell after reports indicate he was pepper sprayed by officers and locked in a cell to asphyxiate. Just last week, reports surfaced that Tommy Lee Rutledge was left in a 101 degree cell to die of hyperthermia, in the midst of a cold December night.
Since yesterday morning’s attack, Donaldson has been locked down and ADOC’s CERT team (Correctional Emergency Response Team) has been committing further violence, assaulting Wilbert Smith and Derrol Shaw, among others at the facility. This only underscores the pressing need for federal intervention.
It is clear that the administration at Donaldson is incapable of keeping the population safe from its own bloodthirsty officers. The urgency of this situation demands immediate action by the DOJ to prevent further loss of life. We call upon the Department to do everything in its power to protect the people incarcerated at Donaldson, starting with the immediate termination and prosecution of the officers involved in this incident. As the governmental agency tasked with investigating and holding ADOC accountable for its unconstitutional conduct, nothing could be more squarely within the DOJ’s responsibility.
Mr. Moore is a mentally ill person who should be receiving treatment, not brutality. Victims Shaw and Smith were innocent bystanders, and Kinetik Justice is a freedom fighter known around the world for tireless efforts to organize people in prison to secure their human rights. Kinetik Justice’s advocacy with the Alabama Resistance Movement and the Free Alabama Movement has resulted in constant retaliation from the Alabama Department of Corrections, including efforts to silence him by putting him in solitary confinement, censoring his communications, and putting his life in danger. Now, it appears they have tried to silence him in the ultimate manner that has always been reserved for Black freedom fighters.
But justice cannot be silenced. We call upon the DOJ to take immediate action against these officers and against the system which has been shown – by your own agency – to enable them.
Free Alabama Movement 
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