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Chase Mathis told prison guards that he was being threatened by other inmates and feared for his life. But he died within hours of being taken to the adjacent jail.
Mathis died on June 4, 2024, after being placed in general population instead of a cell for his own safety, his father said. Tim Mathis said he wants answers. They worry that their 31-year-old son died not from an accidental overdose, but from a “hot shot” – a lethal dose of drugs given against his will.
“Behind those walls people are dying every day, not only from violence and neglect but from the deliberate indifference of a system that treats them like garbage,” Mathis said during a rally on Wednesday. Alabama Capital. Chase Mathis’ son was serving a 15-year sentence for manslaughter after his friend died in a car accident when he was driving drunk.
Family members of people in Alabama’s prisons held a meeting of the Legislative Prison Committee on Wednesday and then held a rally on the steps of the Capitol. He said he hopes a new documentary on the prison system, now airing on HBO, will draw renewed attention to long-standing problems in state lockups. The documentary relied heavily on footage shot by prisoners on cellphones.
Family members carried photos of loved ones killed in prison and photos of state officials with the caption “Blood on your hands.” They described assaults, rapes, extortion, deaths and overdoses behind bars. He also expressed disappointment at the lack of progress towards improving conditions in the state.
Rodrecia Russo, executive director of The Ordinary People Society, a nonprofit focused on helping formerly incarcerated people, said the stories are “just the surface” of the problem.
“We’ve lost a lot of lives. A lot of blood has been shed,” Russo said.
The state prison system has faced criticism over the years for high rates of violence, understaffing, low parole rates and the use of pandemic funds to build its new supersized prison.
Eddie Burkhalter, a researcher at Alabama Appleseed, a nonprofit law and justice center, said there were 277 deaths in the prison system last year, including at least 12 murders. Burkhalter said Alabama’s overall prison death rate in 2023 was five times the national rate in the state’s prisons.
During the legislative meeting, the state prison chief described the department’s effort to improve conditions.
Correction Commissioner john hamm Construction of the state’s new 4,000-bed mega-jail is 75% complete, he told MPs during the committee meeting. He said the state is also making progress on staffing, which he said is critical to providing better conditions.
“Everything depends on corrections officer staffing,” Hamm said.
But Hamm told lawmakers they should be aware that the number of inmates in state prisons “has increased significantly, and we’re trending upward.”
The number of prisoners in the state increased from 20,904 in 2023 to 21,803 this summer.
The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Alabama in 2020, arguing that conditions in the prison system – which the Justice Department has called one of the most understaffed and violent in the country – are so bad that the state is violating the ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
representative chris England “The system is bad from beginning to end,” he said after the meeting.
“You can’t argue that we haven’t improved at all,” England said. “Abuse has increased. Drug overdoses have increased.” Corruption It is above.”
Sandy Ray’s son, steven davisDied in 2019 after being shot by officers during an altercation at the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility. His son’s death and Ray’s search for answers were featured prominently in the documentary “The Alabama Solution”.
The state acquitted the officers of wrongdoing but agreed to pay $250,000 to settle the wrongful death suit. Wray said Wednesday that he expects more accountability, including that the state will reopen the investigation.
“Why do they let this person continue to hurt our loved ones,” Ray said Wednesday.