The department said that it found that prisoners in the Alabama prison system endured some of the highest rates of homicide and rape in the country, and it cited a “flagrant disregard” for their constitutional right to be free from excessive and cruel punishment.
The Alabama Department of Corrections is already the subject of federal civil rights lawsuits that say prisoners are not protected from violence and are not given proper medical and mental health care. The prisons are severely understaffed, and the department has requested $31 million to hire 500 more correctional officers and raise pay across the board.
The report focused on the failure to prevent prisoner-on-prisoner violence through inadequate training, failure to properly classify and supervise inmates, and failure to stem the flow of contraband including weapons and drugs.
“The violations are severe, systemic, and exacerbated by serious deficiencies in staffing and supervision,” the report said. It also cited “the use of segregation and solitary confinement to both punish and protect victims of violence and/or sexual abuse; and a high level of violence that is too common, cruel, of an unusual nature, and pervasive.”
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The Justice Department is still investigating excessive force and sexual abuse by prison staff members, an investigation that former federal prosecutors say could lead to criminal indictments.
The department concluded that the Alabama prison system did not protect prisoners from physical and sexual violence at the hands of other prisoners.
In a single week, the department detailed a horrific list of abuses that included instances of multiple stabbings, prisoners attacking a sleeping man with socks filled with metal locks and a prisoner being forced to perform oral sex at knifepoint.
The department also concluded that the system does not provide “safe and sanitary” living conditions. Open sewage ran by the pathway that government attorneys used to access one facility, which the state closed soon after the inspectors visited.
Gov. Kay Ivey said the state was already aware of and trying to fix the issues raised by the Justice Department.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.