Mary Scott Hodgin: A heads up before we get going. This is a grown-up story about prison. It describes violent acts including sexual assault. It's not for kids and it may not be for all adult listeners. 

It’s early in the morning, January 2020, pre-pandemic. 

I’m at the front gates of Donaldson Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison about 40 minutes from Birmingham. 

Men and women stand in line waiting to get in. Some say they’ve been here since 6 a.m. sitting in their cars in the parking lot. 

As they come through the gate, they turn over their personal property, walk through security scanners and then head inside. 

This is a job recruiting event. These people want to work in Alabama’s prisons. 

Jeff Dunn: Good morning. I'm Jeff Dunn, the commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections, and I would like to sincerely thank you all for being here at today's hiring event.

Mary Scott Hodgin: In the welcome video, the commissioner at the time, Jeff Dunn, says the prison system is the largest law enforcement agency in Alabama. And he says they’re looking to hire tough, strong, motivated people. 

Jeff Dunn: We have hundreds of employees in the DOC family who are passionate about public safety and committed to making a difference in corrections. However, we need to add more correctional officers to our team, which is why we are so excited to have you here today.

Mary Scott Hodgin: In fact, the Alabama Department of Corrections has been under a federal court order that, as of late 2021, requires them to hire more than two thousand more officers.

Many people, including prison officials, say a chronic shortage of security staff is one of if not the biggest problem facing the Alabama Department of Corrections. 

A federal judge says mental health care for inmates is inadequate because, among other things, there are not enough correctional officers. 

Separately, U.S. Justice officials say the lack of officers leads to violence and sexual abuse among incarcerated men. And the DOJ says officers who are on duty frequently use excessive force. 

It’s part of the reason the Justice Department sued Alabama, a lawsuit that could lead to additional federal oversight if conditions don’t improve.

From WBHM in Birmingham, this is Deliberate Indifference, the story of Alabama’s prison crisis and the people inside it. 

I’m Mary Scott Hodgin. 

In this episode, we hear what it’s like to work inside some of the most dangerous prisons in the country and how some officers contribute to the violence. 

PART ONE

Mary Scott Hodgin: Alabama’s prisons have been dangerously understaffed for years. 

This has been documented over and over again by the U.S. Department of Justice, by the state prison system itself. And I’ve heard it from lots of people: inmates, officers, lawmakers. 

People who’ve spent their careers working in the Alabama Department of Corrections say the problems started decades ago. 

Rodney Huntley’s first job was at a car dealership, washing and prepping cars. He later moved up to a sales position. Then in the early 1980s, a recession changed things. 

Rodney Huntley: I was unemployed for a year, a whole year, the whole year of 82. Applied to several jobs and ended up getting accepted to the Alabama Department of Corrections, which I didn't know it was the Alabama Department of Corrections. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Huntley says the job he applied for in 1983 was called a “correctional counselor trainee.” He thought he’d be counseling inmates. But it was a security position. Huntley accepted.

He says he joined the corrections workforce with a lot of other people who were pushed out of their jobs in the 1980s. 

Rodney Huntley: The recession hit a lot of people. So there were people who thought they were going to have a good job and a good career. They ended up correctional counselors, too.

Mary Scott Hodgin: Huntley says during his first few years prison officials were hiring. Back then, just like now, the  state was under federal court order to meet certain staffing levels.

This has to do with what we talked about in episode 2, when Federal Judge Frank Johnson ordered an overhaul of  Alabama’s prison system. His ruling outlined unconstitutional conditions of violence, abuse and neglect. He ordered the state to reduce overcrowding and improve safety in its prisons. 

The state agreed to fix certain things and eventually entered into an agreement called a consent decree. 

Rodney Huntley: Which meant that the state had to put in a certain amount of money. They had to meet certain goals. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: In response to federal intervention, and a growing prison population, the state of Alabama built several new prisons during the 1980s and ‘90s.

Huntley spent his first few years working in maximum security prisons.

He says during this time, staffing levels were pretty good. 

Rodney Huntley: And that worked well until the consent decree came off. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: In 1989, the federal government ended its oversight of Alabama’s prison system.

Rodney Huntley: Shortly after the consent decree came off, all of the sudden we didn’t have any funding. We had to cut back 10 percent. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: In the early 1990s, the department laid off hundreds of employees. 

News reports throughout the decade talk about a “dangerous shortage of guards.” Meanwhile, the prison population was increasing at a “rapid rate.” 

Rodney Huntley says that’s when he saw things change.  

Rodney Huntley: You know, they cut everything but the inmates. So when they cut those people and they cut everything but the inmates. I think this was the beginning of our situation that we're in now, which is for some reason, we just can't hire and retain people. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Huntley served 27 years with the Alabama Department of Corrections. He was promoted to sergeant, then lieutenant, then warden. 

He retired in 2010. 

Rodney Huntley: Towards the end of my career they came to the conclusion that funding prisons was a priority. But I mean, that was after years of, you know, not doing it. For, from the 90s until the 2000s, they hadn't done a real good job of funding. And then somewhere around 2005, they came to, “you know what? We need to go ahead and make prisons a priority.” But there was a lot to be done then.

Mary Scott Hodgin: According to annual reports, the Alabama Department of Corrections saw an increase in staffing numbers from the mid-2000s up until 2010, when Huntley left the department. But the success was short-lived. 

The following year, security staffing numbers went back down and continued to decline for almost a decade. 

According to a report from December of 2021, the Alabama Department of Corrections has about half the number of correctional officers that it needs to run the state’s prisons. 

Prison officials say they’re doing everything they can to hire people.  They’re hosting recruitment events  and working to keep current employees. 

But officers who’ve worked in Alabama’s prisons say the job can be a tough sell. It’s not only exhausting and stressful, it’s dangerous. 

U.S. Justice officials say Alabama’s prisons for men are some of the most violent correctional facilities in the country. 

H. LaMarr Clasberry: When you see on TV, this person got killed, this person got stabbed, this person is beaten up, who in their right mind would want to work at a prison?

Mary Scott Hodgin: H. LaMarr Clasberry worked inside Alabama’s prisons on and off starting in 2008. He had problems with management and left the job in early 2020.

Kevin Moore is another former officer. He also served several years before quitting in late 2020. 

Moore says the job presents unbelievable demands and he’s not just talking about the daily risk of violence. In most areas, there is no air conditioning. You’re exposed to mold, you work in a loud, stressful environment.

And some days are shocking.

Kevin Moore: I was an officer that had feces thrown on me. You know, who wants to go to work, average person, gets feces thrown on him. Or you sitting there watching a mental health inmate in his cell. And he's so far gone. You got to get some help, but he's sitting there eating his own feces and drinking his urine.

Jesse Moore: Going into it, you can tell yourself you’re ready. You know I’ve seen fights and stuff like that. But never seen anyone get stabbed to death. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Jesse Moore, no relation to Kevin Moore, started with the Alabama Department of Corrections in 2015 and left in 2019. 

He worked at two maximum security prisons, St. Clair and Donaldson, and says he saw a lot of violence. One day, he says an inmate collapsed right in front of him after being stabbed in the chest by another man. Moore says he and others took the man to the infirmary. He died not long after.  

Moore says he knew other things were happening out of sight.  

Jesse Moore: I never saw really any rapes or sexual assaults, but you could kind of tell it was going on and who it was affecting or who was the victim. Just seeing how evil people are inside there. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: In their reports and lawsuit filings, U.S. Justice officials say men incarcerated in Alabama’s prisons fight and sometimes get killed with homemade weapons. Men sexually assault other men. Some get high and pass out. 

Justice officials say part of the problem is that correctional officers don’t always intervene.

Officer 1: You can't intervene when there is no one around to intervene.

Mary Scott Hodgin: This officer asked us not to use his name for fear of losing his job. He is currently employed at one of Alabama’s maximum-security prisons. 

Officer 1: We're operating dangerously low levels. During COVID, it was pretty dangerous sometimes. We're not even, we don’t have enough officers to staff all the positions that we have that are mandatory staff.

Mary Scott Hodgin: Former correctional officer Jesse Moore saw the same thing when he worked at Donaldson Correctional Facility. 

Jesse Moore: There were times when I would work what was called the south side at Donaldson and it would be me and maybe two other people, and we're working with five dorms that hold almost 100 people per dorm. So it's three of us versus 500 people. And what do you do? You just kind of let them do their thing. And because basically then they know it. They're letting you have control. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Justice officials repeatedly bring up the staffing shortage in their 2019 report on Alabama’s prisons for men. They say there are so few correctional officers that in some dormitories, the department is “essentially providing no security for prisoners.”

Justice officials say the officers who are around should do more to protect inmates and enforce the rules. 

An example, in large dormitories men sometimes suspend sheets or towels from their bunks for privacy. Federal officials say this is a hazard. Officers can’t see if a person is using drugs, making weapons, or assaulting someone. 

The DOJ report says a simple fix would be for officers to take down the blankets or towels. 

Former officer Jesse Moore says it’s not that simple. 

Jesse Moore: You know, the DOJ can write all they want. And I agree with what they wrote. But like you're saying, you know, why don't they just take them down and it's, that's how you get killed or beat up or jumped or stabbed. I mean, you go in there and start. And because, like I said, that's their home. You go in there and you start trying to be a hero or, you know, supercop. It’s short-handed. It's overcrowded. You kind of just got to let certain things slide and you got to know how to do things to make sure you go home every night. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Inside prison, correctional officers are allowed to carry batons and pepper spray. They’re taught how to use those weapons to protect themselves and incarcerated people. 

Officers cannot carry a gun as they patrol the housing areas where inmates live. They don’t want people in prison getting a hold of firearms.

Officers learn how to de-escalate situations and properly use force, how to be on the lookout for potential threats and to follow security protocols to reduce the risk of violence. 

But inside prisons that are understaffed, overcrowded and rife with illicit drugs and homemade weapons, things don’t always go by the book.

Unidentified Man (Singing): Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

Mary Scott Hodgin: This audio is from a Facebook video uploaded in 2017 by the Alabama Department of Corrections.

The video shows dozens of people gathered outside under a large tent. 

They’re attending a ceremony in honor of Kenneth Bettis. 

Bettis was a military veteran. He was married with three kids. He worked as an officer for several years at one of Alabama’s maximum-security prisons, Holman Correctional Facility. 

In September of 2016, a man incarcerated at Holman stabbed Kenneth Bettis.  According to U.S. justice officials, Officer Bettis was working alone in the dining hall when a prisoner stabbed him in the head. The man was reportedly angry because Bettis did not let him get a second food tray. Bettis died a few weeks later.

Officer Bettis was killed about a month before the U.S. Justice Department alerted the state of Alabama that it was investigating its prisons for men. 

During the memorial ceremony, a fellow correctional officer, Willie Harris, talks about Bettis’s legacy. 

Willie Harris: No matter what went on inside of that prison, Bettis came back with the same attitude day in and day out.

Mary Scott Hodgin: He says Bettis was consistent and reliable. And his death is a reminder of how dangerous the job can be. After Kenneth Bettis was killed, the corrections department started issuing stab-proof vests for protection.

Willie Harris: We continue to walk into an environment that can change in the blinking of an eye.

Mary Scott Hodgin: At the time, Willie Harris was working at the same prison where Kenneth Bettis was killed. Harris says when he goes to work, he pauses in the parking lot and he prays. 

Willie Harris: I pray not only for me. But I pray for my co-workers. I pray for my leaders. I pray for the inmates. I pray that the peace of God that surpasses all understanding be bestowed upon that place. God bless you.

Mary Scott Hodgin: In their report, federal officials describe more than a dozen cases of officers getting stabbed and beaten on the job.

In recent years, there’ve been uprisings that lead to both inmates and staff getting injured. These often get national and even international attention. 

Former officer Kevin Moore says the longer he worked in the prison system, the more it affected him. 

Kevin Moore: I always feared for my life in corrections. It was not at one point that I did not. I told my wife daily, “I love you. I may make it home. I may not.” Because that's just the way it goes in corrections. It’s like walking in the war every day. You have to flip that switch.

Mary Scott Hodgin: He says it was difficult to maintain any kind of work-life balance. 

Kevin Moore: It takes you away from home a lot. You may come in to work expecting to work 12 hours, but there's no way you're working 12 hours. You're stuck 16. And they might put you on the mandate list and they don't care if you got to go pick up your son or whatever you have going on in life, it doesn't matter.

Mary Scott Hodgin: Because there are so few staff members, the prison system has made officers work mandatory overtime shifts each month.

In fact, the Alabama Department of Corrections spends more on overtime pay than any other state department. 

Kevin Moore says it means extra money, but the hours are grueling, working 12, 16 hour shifts, sometimes longer. 

Kevin Moore: You’re exhausted. By the time you get home, you don't have any time for family. You don't have any time. You just want to be alone. It makes you a loner. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: The current correctional officer who asked that we not use his name says the pressures of the job, the lack of support, the long hours, it builds up and it leads to more violence. 

Officer 1: So it's only a matter of time before the stresses of the job kind of get to you and affect you, you know, mentally and physically, you know, so you're put under all that stress. And I mean, anybody that's put under all that stress, eventually, you know, you're going to act out. So that's where some of those excessive use of force cases come in.

Mary Scott Hodgin: A year after its first investigative report, the U.S. Justice Department released a separate report in 2020. In it, Justice officials say correctional officers in Alabama’s prisons “frequently use excessive force” on incarcerated men.  

They say officers unnecessarily beat and abuse men out of retribution or to inflict pain. 

The report says these incidents often result in serious injury and sometimes death.

After a break, the story of another life lost inside Alabama’s prisons. This time at the hands of correctional officers.

You're listening to Deliberate Indifference from WBHM in Birmingham. 

PART TWO

Mary Scott Hodgin: This is a grown-up story about prison. It's not for kids and it may not be for all adult listeners.

This is Deliberate Indifference. I’m Mary Scott Hodgin.

The staffing shortage inside Alabama’s prisons is dangerous. As a result, it can create life threatening situations for both prison staff and incarcerated men.

Sandy Ray: Hello, how are y’all today? 

Mary Scott Hodgin: It’s December 2019, and a small crowd is gathered for a news conference at the Alabama State House  to talk about prison reform.

A woman stands at the podium. She’s got short white hair and is hooked up to a portable oxygen machine.

Sandy Ray: My name is Sandy Ray and my son’s name was Steven Davis. And he was. He was beaten to death by correctional officers at Donaldson Prison. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Sandy Ray pulls out a picture of her son from before he went to prison. He’s in an orange sweatshirt, standing in front of water, holding a fish.

Then Sandy Ray pulls out another picture.

Sandy Ray: This is what these two guards done to my son. This has not been released before today. This is my son. This is what these two officers done to my son y’all. As you can see, he is beaten beyond recognition.

Mary Scott Hodgin: Since that day at the news conference, Sandy Ray has been interviewed by national media and documentary film crews. 

Sandy Ray: My story is not over until we have justice. That's the way I feel about it.

Mary Scott Hodgin: That story begins on October 4, 2019. 

Sandy Ray: We were sitting here just like we normally do, and I get a call from the warden at Donaldson Prison telling me that my son is at UAB Hospital and that I need to go up there.

Mary Scott Hodgin: Ray lives in Uniontown, a small rural community almost two hours from the hospital in Birmingham.

Sandy Ray: And when I got up there, they must have knew it was us because there was this guard. And he was a nice, he was a nice guy. He said, “You'll be allowed to see Stevie, but you're not allowed to take any electronics or anything into the room.” And I'm like “OK” because I know they don't want you taking pictures. And so I said, “OK.” 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Ray says she entered the room and walked to her son’s bedside. 

Sandy Ray: And when I got around there and I seen him, I was just, yeah, I couldn't believe it. I'm like, “Oh my God, what happened to him, you know?” And I'm thinking, “He's going to be OK. You know, he'll, he's going to be OK. You know?” And the guy that was, the two guards came in and they were standing there with us. And the one guard turns around and you could see tears, you know. He was crying. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Sandy Ray says she took a photo with her cellphone while the on-duty guards were asleep. It’s the same photo she pulled out at the press conference. 

She wanted to document what happened to her son. 

Because she could not recognize him. 

Sandy Ray: Both of his eyes were beat so bad, they were like bulged out. And bruises. So many bruises all over his face, his nose. You got to imagine they broke every bone in his face, every bone.

Mary Scott Hodgin: Thirty-five-year old Steven Davis died from his injuries the next day. An autopsy would later list 16 separate injuries to his head and neck.

Sandy Ray says initially she thought other incarcerated men killed her son. But days later, she found out that correctional officers had beaten Steven. 

Sandy Ray: It was really unbelievable. You know, I'm thinking, guards? They're supposed to protect him. You gotta be, you know, this can't be right. You know. This can’t be right.

Mary Scott Hodgin: The autopsy includes a summary of what happened, according to an investigator for the corrections department. 

It says Steven Davis had been living in the mental health unit at Donaldson Prison. It says, on October 4, 2019, an officer opened the door to Davis’ cell, and Davis came out with a weapon in each hand. The report suggests that Davis was trying to attack another inmate, and the officer intervened. It says Davis wouldn’t drop his weapons so the officer sprayed him with pepper spray. Then another officer arrived and they started beating Davis.  

In its 2020 excessive force investigation, Justice officials offer more details. They say witnesses report seeing the officers beat Steven Davis after he dropped his weapons and posed no threat.

Prison officials say they investigated the death and cleared both officers of wrongdoing. They passed their findings to local, federal and state officials.

The state Attorney General’s office declined to comment on the status of the case, But prison officials say both officers have been criminally cleared. 

They say one of the officers involved in Davis’s death remains on duty and that the other has resigned for unrelated reasons. 

Steven Davis was one of two men who were beaten to death by Alabama correctional officers in 2019. 

U.S. Justice officials detail these incidents in their 2020 report on excessive use of force. 

The report describes more than a dozen other cases in which men were badly beaten, but survived. In one, an officer beat a man so violently, he defecated on himself. 

In multiple cases, officers beat inmates while they were handcuffed. 

Getting information about who is involved in these kinds of incidents can be difficult. 

Personnel records could provide some insight, but prison officials say they’ll only release those with permission from the officer in question. And there is no public database to track claims of staff misconduct.  

Just about all of the correctional officers I interviewed described using force against inmates who they say weren’t following commands or who were putting others at risk. The officers say it’s part of the job. 

Some pushed back on the DOJ investigation. 

Others agreed with the findings.  

When he worked in the prison system, H. LaMarr Clasberry says he sometimes saw other officers abuse their authority. 

H. LaMarr Clasberry: All of the bad people in the prison are not incarcerated people. There are some bad officers, who prey, p-r-e-y, on incarcerated people. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Former officer Jesse Moore says he also saw staff members break rules and use excessive force against incarcerated people. He says he didn’t feel like he could do anything about it. 

Jesse Moore: Certain people, and there's certain groups of people, I'm not going to call names, but they're in it almost, sort of a power type thing. Inmates don't do what they tell them to do and stuff like that and, you know, beat them up, jump on them, hurt them pretty bad. And I wasn't about that. And if you did speak up, then, you know, you were blackballed and you were considered an outcast or soft or inmate friendly or whatever you want to call it.

Mary Scott Hodgin: The DOJ report on excessive force says officers and even supervisors don’t often intervene when they see other officers “brutally” beat inmates.

And the report says Alabama prison officials “rarely” suspend or dismiss correctional officers for using excessive force. 

Jeff Dunn denied that claim. 

Jeff Dunn: You don't mistreat people in prison. Simple as that. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Dunn served as the commissioner of Alabama’s prison system for more than six years, from 2015 until the end of 2021, during which both DOJ investigations were released. 

Under his watch, Dunn said the department did take action if staff violated rules or used excessive force. 

In 2019, after correctional officers killed Steven Davis and another man named Michael Smith, Commissioner Dunn created an internal task force to look at the issue.

Jeff Dunn: That led to multiple changes in the department. So we made policy changes. We made staffing changes. We changed our training curriculum. I directed a statewide refresher training on use of force to every correctional officer in the system. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Dunn said the corrections department also launched a pilot program at Donaldson prison to have supervisors wear body cameras. The plan was to eventually expand it to other prisons. The department has since declined to provide an update on the rollout.

Back in April of 2021, Dunn claimed that when necessary, the department did take action against staff.

Jeff Dunn: And if they willingly violate our rules or policies, well then we're applying appropriate discipline. If they go to excess, at the farther end of that scale, then we will take it to the farthest extent of the law, I mean, even to the extent of prosecution, so forth. And we've done and we've done that, too. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: In recent years, at least a dozen Alabama correctional officers have been arrested for using force against inmates though some charges were later dropped. 

Some officers have also been arrested in recent years for bringing contraband, like drugs and cell phones, into state prisons. 

The U.S. justice department brings up this issue repeatedly in its reports and lawsuit filings. 

Justice officials say officers are not properly screened at the beginning of a shift.  

Prison officials and staff push back on that. They say visitors and family members could also be bringing in contraband. 

But justice officials note that for more than a year and a half during the COVID-19 pandemic, the prison system was closed to visitors. And yet, during that time, prisoners still had “easy access to drugs and other illegal contraband.”

The federal government says the staffing shortage plays a significant role in all of the chronic problems facing Alabama’s prison system.  

There are simply not enough officers to protect and supervise the people locked up in Alabama’s prisons. 

Jeff Dunn says the shortage is a complex problem, decades in the making.

Jeff Dunn: So there's lots of things that have contributed to it. But the real question and probably the more important question is what are we doing to try to fix it? Because that's really what I'm concerned about.

Mary Scott Hodgin: Because of a federal lawsuit about mental health care in state prisons, the department hired outside firms to analyze staffing ratios and develop a plan to recruit and retain more officers. 

Jeff Dunn: And we have basically re-engineered our entire advertising, marketing and recruiting, onboarding, training.

Mary Scott Hodgin: In 2019, Alabama lawmakers increased salaries for correctional officers. They bumped the base pay from about $30,000 to about $33,000 and they increased opportunities for bonuses and raises. 

Prison officials also created a new job category called the “basic correctional officer.” It does not require the same physical tests or training that a regular correctional officer must complete. The new position does not pay as much either. 

Officials say these changes have had an impact. Before the pandemic, there was record turnout at some recruitment events. 

I saw it firsthand in January of 2020. 

That day about 150 people showed up to apply to work in Alabama’s prisons. 

I asked some of them why they were there.  

Tacoris Carpenter: Girl let me shout out to my kids. Hey! 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Tacoris Carpenter said she had come because of her three kids.  

Tacoris Carpenter: This is something that I want to do. I’m looking forward to doing this. And I want a better future for my kids. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Sitting nearby, Robert Dyess said he was there for similar reasons. 

Robert Dyess: Monday morning this week I was laid off from my job, because the business I was working at closed down. So I needed to find a job really quick.  

Mary Scott Hodgin: A majority of the people at the recruitment event, including Tacoris Carpenter and Robert Dyess, were applying to be basic correctional officers, the new position that doesn’t have the same physical requirements as a correctional officer. 

The jobs are similar but basic correctional officers can’t do some things, like transport prisoners or patrol the perimeter, where guards can carry guns. 

Crystal West: My name is Crystal West

Mary Scott Hodgin: Crystal West drove 4 hours from her home in Mobile, Alabama, to attend the recruiting event.

Crystal West: Now I’m looking for something that I can work to fulfill a greater need. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Bobby Atkisson said he also sees purpose in the job. 

Bobby Atkisson: I’ve always wanted to go into law enforcement. That’s why I chose to do this. Just being a part of something more, than just going to work every day. You’re actually helping somebody, trying to help somebody. That type of deal. That’s what drives me to do it. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Candidates for the correctional officer position have to complete a physical test. 

They have to run a mile and a half in less than 15 minutes and 28 seconds, complete 22 push ups in a minute and 25 sit ups in a minute. 

Unidentified Man: All right. Feet together. Stretch. Feet together. Hands behind your thighs. Bend over, stretch. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: The run was first. Roughly 60 men and women in an assortment of gym clothes ran around a gravelly road circling the prison.  

Unidentified Man: Ready? Go!

Mary Scott Hodgin: About half of them finished in time. Roughly thirty candidates physically eligible for the correctional officer job.

Demyja Woods just made it. This was his second time trying the physical test.

Mary Scott Hodgin: So what was your time?

Demvja Woods: Fifteen minutes. Fifteen seconds.

Mary Scott Hodgin:: How was it?
Demvja Woods: It was, well I won't say it was brutal. But I'm not I'm not used to running. I’ll just just say that much so. For the past three weeks, I've been on the track, on the treadmill, running outside in the front yard, just doing whatever I can do.

Mary Scott Hodgin:: So why do you want this so bad?

Demvja Woods: Well, I'm 28 years old. I have a two-year-old son. And at this stage in my life, like, I'm tired of bouncing around from job to job, trying to see where I would fit. So I actually talked to one of my friends who just so happens to be a correctional officer. And he gave me the ins and outs about it, told me everything that, you know, it would consist of. And from the moment I talked to him about it, I was like, “This is what I want to do. This is the career path that's meant for me.”

Mary Scott Hodgin: I talked to 11 people that day. Most ended up getting a job with the Alabama Department of Corrections. As of late last 2021, four of them, including Demyja Woods, were still employed. 

Prison officials say the creation of the basic correctional officer position is a success. According to a staffing report from December of 2021, basic correctional officers make up about a quarter of the department’s total staff 

Now even if someone can’t pass the department’s standard fitness test, they can still work in the prison system. 

That said, some officers and inmates criticize the approach. They say the new position is lowering the department’s standards and creating a less qualified workforce. 

Since creating the new position, raising salaries and increasing recruitment efforts, former corrections commissioner Jeff Dunn said the department has finally reversed a decade-long trend of losing staff. 

But progress is slow. According to that staffing report from late 2021, Alabama’s prisons are operating with fewer than half the number of correctional officers they need.

Dunn said the pandemic created new challenges. 

Jeff Dunn: In 2019 and 20, we hired record numbers of correctional officers. Since COVID hit, we have struggled to continue hiring. But I don't think in that sense we're any different than what's going on in the broader society. And I think it's reflective of just the employment environment all across the state and the country, as I see it, that employers are struggling to, to bring people in. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Despite the challenges, Dunn was optimistic.

He said the department was on the right track to recruit and retain more employees.

And he was hopeful about long term plans. 

When we met in the fall of 2021, the state was moving closer to finally approving new prison construction and Dunn said new prisons would improve working conditions for staff.

Jeff Dunn: Everybody realizes we've got to change the conditions in our prisons. And facilities is not the end all and be all. It's not the silver bullet. Nobody says it is, but certainly no one would argue with me if I said, would it make sense to invest in an old, broke down, dilapidated school room and bring it up to current standards so that a teacher had a better environment to teach kids? Well, everybody would agree with that. Well, the same is true here. We have got broke down dilapidated facilities that in some cases are not as safe as they need to be. They don't promote the types of things we want to promote. They don't allow for us to do the mission of rehabilitation and reentry. They don't serve our staff well, just a whole host of things. But I think with a very small exception, everybody agrees we got to do something. We got to do something. And so that's why I'm more optimistic.

Mary Scott Hodgin: A month after we met, Alabama lawmakers approved a $1.3 billion plan to build two new mega-prisons for men. 

Governor Kay Ivey: Folks this is a pivotal moment for the trajectory of our state’s criminal justice system.

Mary Scott Hodgin: The state’s governor, Kay Ivey, said the move will go a long way to appease federal justice officials. 

Governor Kay Ivey: Addressing these challenges through the construction of new prison facilities is the legal and fiscally sound thing for us to do. And it’s also morally the right thing to do, to ensure we have safe working conditions for our corrections staff and proper rehabilitation capabilities for the inmates. 

Mary Scott Hodgin: Construction on the new prisons is scheduled to begin sometime in 2022. The goal is to open them by 2025.  

Governor Ivey says the new prisons will move the state in a new direction, help create a system focused on rehabilitation and re-entry. 

Not everyone agrees.  

Protesters: No new prisons! No new prisons!

Carla Crowder: The Department of Corrections has had two and half years to address this litany of deficiencies, understaffing, culture, corruption, training. Things have only gotten worse. Buildings are not killing people.

In our final episode of Deliberate Indifference, a look at what’s next for Alabama’s prison system and the people inside. 

This is Deliberate Indifference.

I’m Mary Scott Hodgin. I wrote and reported this episode. 

Kate Smith edited the script.

Meg Martin fact checked the episode.

Matthew Hancock created our music and served as audio engineer.

Miranda Fulmore helped with production assistance and digital material. 

Help along the way from Audrey Atikins and Andrew Yeager 

Website design by Cayenne Creative 

NPR’s Story Lab helped get this project started. Thanks to Debbie Elliott and Peter Breslow. 

And special thanks to Alberto Enes Romero.

To hear all of our episodes, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to check out our website for more details. That’s deliberate indifference dot org. 

Join me next time for the final episode of Deliberate Indifference.