The Alabama Solution

 

The Alabama Solution

This Jimmy Fallon interview with Andrew Jarecki about his documentary The Alabama Solution reminded me of the most recent atrocity that I'm aware of concerning the Alabama prison system.

https://youtu.be/vadQsrAHLSw?si=xDLRrK8VQJT9qB-K

I represented a young man who was constantly running into trouble with the law because of the mental problems that have plagued him since he was a little boy. Most recently he had gotten into trouble both with the feds and with the state. At that point no one had any beef with the way he had been treated by the judicial system. It was as much as could be expected when we're using the police and courts as a part of the mental health system. He received a short sentence in federal court and a sentence in state court to run concurrently. 

He had been in Mobile Metro but was moved to Escambia County to serve his federal sentence. When his federal sentence was up, Escambia County released him rather than put him back into the state system to complete his sentence. When he reported to his federal probation officer, they reported him to the state system. The state system picked him up and now considered him an escapee. As a result, his security status went up. He was placed in  Kilby. 

We started trying to correct what was an obvious mistake, that he was not an escapee, had been dutifully reporting, and that his minor offense would dictate he be at Fountain or somewhere that could deal with his mental illness. Alabama's excuse for everything is that we are poor and that usually metastasizes in the mechanics of its social services. It is on full display in the prison system and they are nonplussed by anything even remotely being portrayed as a problem. They are already wading in a sea of crap, thank you.

The Warden - or any one that one could be expected to reach about this problem - was protected from phone calls by gatekeepers and voicemail. He was unresponsive to my letters and refused to impart any information to his family. 

This continued even after the prisoner went dark. Phone calls to his mom stopped. She could not reach him. It would be one month later, thanks to a doctor's call, that the family would know the had been grievously attacked while in prison. He had been easy prey for the animals that are housed in that facility. He had been taken to a hospital in Jackson, released back to the prison, and then transferred to a hospital in Birmingham. The 900-page medical record characterized his life-threatening injuries:  he was catatonic, requiring multiple shock treatments and intensive care. He was put back into the prison and ultimately released back to his mother, now suffering PTSD.

Whenever someone is critical, whether by innuendo or directly, of my role as a criminal defense lawyer, I remember the why of what I do. We as a society have grown in ways that are both positive and negative and on the Alabama side of things those negatives are usually larger and dictated by economics and, frankly, a lack of caring. My client's experience wasn't anything I hadn't heard before. The problem is endemic. The brutality of our prison system is real. So is the general lack of concern. Indeed, some relish it as righteous retribution.