Smart Justice Reporting Drives Latest Alabama Prison Study Group Meeting
Two cases recently elevated by Smart Justice investigative reporting made a huge impact at the December “study group” meeting on Alabama’s prison crisis. Governor Kay Ivey, who has not attended the monthly meetings, formed the group in July to address “the challenges” facing Alabama’s prison system.
The latest meeting on December 4 in Montgomery was the only opportunity given for people directly impacted by the crisis to speak publicly to the group.
BY BETH SHELBURNE, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, CAMPAIGN FOR SMART JUSTICE
Sandy Ray, the mother of Steven Davis, who was beaten to death by correctional officers at Donaldson Correctional Facility in October, spoke at a press conference organized by Alabamians for Fair Justice, a coalition of individuals and advocacy organizations, including ACLU of Alabama. Smart Justice reported on Davis’s death November 22 and broke the news that his death was ruled a homicide due to head injuries and that one of the officers involved in the killing was still working for the Alabama Department of Corrections.
Mrs. Ray showed a photo of her son while he was on life support and described what it was like to see him in his final hours before he died from traumatic head injuries.
“I sat there by myself and held his hand while he died,” she said. “Steven wasn’t perfect, but who can throw stones? We wouldn’t treat a dog like that.”
The press conference, held immediately prior to the study group meeting, also featured a display of 21 empty chairs featuring the names of people who have died from homicide, suicide or drug overdose in Alabama prisons this year.
Since 2010, homicides have increased 10-fold in Alabama prisons and are now nine times the national average, according to Bureau of Justice statistics. The suicide rate in state prisons is nearly triple the national average.
During the study group meeting, another coalition member, Rodreshia Russaw of The Ordinary People Society (TOPS), invited Mrs. Ray to join her as she spoke to the study group members. Mrs. Ray stood and held up her son’s photo for the room to see, and spoke to the group for several minutes about her son’s death.
Courtney Davis, the wife of David Davis, who is incarcerated at Bibb Correctional Facility, also addressed the study group about her husband’s ongoing health issues inside the prison. Smart Justice published an investigative report about Mr. Davis’s untreated hernias in October, ADOC’s indifference to his condition, and how Mr. and Mrs. Davis both feared he could die if he did not undergo surgery. As a result of our reporting, ADOC established dialogue with Mrs. Davis and Mr. Davis was referred to a specialist for an evaluation.
Mrs. Davis told the study group members that ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn had promised her a meeting with health care providers at Bibb Correctional, but that still hadn’t happened. She also said she and her husband still didn’t know if or when his surgery would take place. Commissioner Dunn addressed her directly from the study group panel and informed her that her husband’s surgery had been scheduled for December.
Mrs. Davis received a standing ovation after she finished her planned remarks about her husband’s incarceration, reminding everyone that just because he’s made mistakes, he is not a bad person and deserves to be treated with dignity and decency. He’s serving 20 years for manslaughter after surviving a car accident in which he was impaired.
“It could be your husband leaving a football party after having a few beers, your daughter leaving a college party after having her first drink, your wife applying her makeup while driving or your son while sending a text,” she said. “Your family is human, just like mine. You’d feel a lot differently about ‘those people’ in prison if those were your people.”
After the meeting was over, several family members of incarcerated people, including Mrs. Ray, confronted ADOC Commissioner Dunn, calling for more accountability and transparency in the agency. He promised them that ADOC is working very hard to fix Alabama’s prison crisis.
Beth Shelburne is an investigative reporter for the Campaign for Smart Justice with the ACLU of Alabama. For investigative reporting on Alabama’s prison and pardons & paroles systems, follow her on Twitter at @bshelburne.