The unchecked use of excessive force against Alabama prisoners violates their rights under the Constitution's Eighth Amendment, the Justice Department finds.
Alabama prison guards working in severely overcrowded and understaffed facilities frequently used excessive force, leading to significant injures and even death, according to the investigation by the department’s Civil Rights Division, working in conjunction with Alabama’s three top federal prosecutors. Two Alabama prisoners died from excessive force incidents in the last months of 2019 alone.
In one instance, a correctional officer at the Ventress Correctional Facility “brutally hit, kicked and struck a handcuffed prisoner” inside a medical unit while yelling “I am the reaper of death, now say my name!” as the prisoner “begged the officer to kill him.” Four nurses witnessed parts of the incident, and the guard ― covered in the prisoner’s blood ― told them to say they hadn’t seen anything, according to the investigation.
In yet another instance, at least six corrections officers at the St. Clair Correctional Facility rushed a prisoner who was handcuffed after stabbing a corrections officer with a prison-made knife. When a sergeant told them, “It’s over; the inmate is in handcuffs,” the officers pepper-sprayed the sergeant in the eye so they could beat the prisoner. During the beating, they used a baton to hit a lieutenant who tried to intervene and pushed him back so the beating could continue.
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