At the very end of the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Justice brought this statewide lawsuit against Alabama, alleging widespread unconstitutional conditions conditions in the state's men's prisons. The case was filed on December 9, 2020, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama (in Birmingham)..

On October 6, 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had opened a statewide investigation into the conditions in Alabama’s prisons for men. According to theDOJ's press release, the Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Northern, Middle and Southern Districts of Alabama would conduct the investigation. The team was to investigate whether prisoners were receiving adequate protection from physical harm and sexual abuse by other prisoners, and from excessive force and sexual abuse by corrections officers. The investigation was also to focus on whether the prisons provided sanitary, secure, and safe living conditions. The investigation was to be conducted under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA)(42 U.S.C. §1997), which gives the department authority to investigate constitutional rights violations resulting from a “pattern or practice of resistance to the full enjoyment of such rights.”

The DOJ released reports on April 2, 2019, and July 23, 2020. The 2019 report highlighted overcrowding, understaffing, failure to protect inmates from “rampant violence,” failure to prevent illegal drugs from entering the prisons, and inadequate protection of prisoners from highly prevalent sexual abuse by other prisoners, which constituted facility conditions that violated the Constitution. The report also found that the evidence suggested that some ADOC officials were deliberately indifferent to the risk of harm. In addition to going over these problems in greater detail, the report suggested remedial measures to address these issues.

The 2020 report focused on the excessive use of force by corrections officers in ADOC, including chemical spray. The report found that excessive force was common and that there was a lack of accountability for the use of force in ADOC. The parties engaged in several rounds of negotiations to solve the issues identified by DOJ without litigation, but failed to reach a resolution of the defects the DOJ identified.

On December 9, 2020, the DOJ filed a this CRIPA lawsuit. The DOJ alleged ADOC had violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments by “failing to prevent prisoner-on-prisoner violence and sexual abuse . . . failing to protect prisoners from the use of excessive force by security staff, and . . . failing to provide safe conditions of confinement.”

The DOJ sought a declaratory judgement that Alabama had violated the Constitution, and to enjoin ADOC from engaging in the illegal actions, omissions, and practices DOJ had identified along with requiring ADOC to take remedial measures. After the Biden Administration's start, DOJ filed an amended complaint on May 19, 2021. The case remains ongoing.

Julie Singer - 04/13/2017
Samuel Poortenga - 03/15/2021
John Duffield - 07/02/2021


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