The Alabama Department of Corrections on Friday opened submitted proposals for the construction of three new prisons in the state, moving Gov. Kay Ivey’s plan for the state to lease three new prisons, to be built by private companies, one step further. 

The opening of the proposals took place in a conference call, only the names of the companies who submitted proposals were read, and no questions to ADOC were allowed.

Ivey’s plan to build the new prisons now moves into an evaluation period, then into a “confidential negotiation period” between the company or companies selected and the state. 

The public isn’t to learn about the details of any deal the state might enter into until after the deal has been signed off on by ADOC and Ivey, according to statements made by ADOC and Ivey’s office. 

ADOC spokeswoman Samantha Rose in a statement Tuesday said that due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations on large gatherings the opening of the proposals would be done by conference call. 

“Please be advised questions will not be permitted at the Opening,” Rose said in the statement. 

The companies and groups who submitted proposals to build one or more of the three new facilities were:

• Alabama Prison Transformation Partners, a group made up of Star America, BL Harbert International, Butler-Cohen, Arrington Watkins Architects and Johnson Controls. 
• CoreCivic, a private prison company, in partnership with Caddell Construction; DLR Group and R&N Systems Design. 

“The dire need for new prisons becomes more prevalent and evident with each passing day,” Ivey said in a statement. “It is no secret that our current facilities, which were constructed decades ago, are structurally failing, no longer can safely house inmates, and simply cannot provide the critical, 21st-century programming and rehabilitative services this population desperately needs to successfully reenter society.”

Ivey said she is confident that this transformative initiative will improve the state’s prison infrastructure by replacing aging and dilapidated facilities that “increasingly pose public safety risks and only will continue to unnecessarily drain taxpayers’ dollars.”

“I remain committed, as I have from day one, to continue to work closely with the Legislature – on both sides of the aisle – throughout the procurement process,” Ivey said. “Frankly, I will not rest until we have an acceptable solution to this problem, which cannot be ignored and will not go away on its own.”

For at least the next six weeks, a committee including officials with the ADOC and the Alabama Department of Finance will evaluate the proposals and make recommendations to Commissioner Jeff Dunn, according to a statement from Ivey’s office Friday. 

After the evaluation period, ADOC expects to announce later this summer the company or companies who’ve been selected to move forward into a “confidential negotiation period,” and once terms are agreed upon between the state and the entities, those terms are to be shared publicly in the fall, according to the statement. 

“Every day, I hear from concerned lawmakers, journalists, and loved ones of inmates who are frustrated by the ADOC’s long-standing challenges and demand improved living conditions and rehabilitative services for those incarcerated in Alabama’s prisons,” ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn said in a statement Friday. “While these challenges certainly cannot be solved by new facilities alone, they absolutely cannot be solved without them. As Commissioner of the ADOC, I share these frustrations and am committed to instituting positive change, which is why I staunchly am advocating for the construction of three new men’s facilities – it is the only way forward. These new facilities, coupled with increased staffing, will allow for improved rehabilitation, programming, and healthcare, all of which will have tangible and measurable societal benefits.”

Criminal justice reform groups and advocates for incarcerated people have for many months expressed concern that ADOC and state legislators make substantive changes to sentencing laws in Alabama, and to what they say and the U.S. Department of Justice says are systematic problems of violence and corruption in the state’s prisons. 

Alabamians for Fair Justice, a group of advocacy organizations and formerly incarcerated people, in a statement on Feb. 18, said that Alabama spends $500 million in taxes annually to house more than 22,000 people in state prisons, yet the prisons remain “dangerous, overcrowded, and understaffed.”  

“Governor Ivey’s main solution to Alabama’s unsafe prisons is to spend $2.6 billion taxpayer dollars to ‘lease’ three new mega-prisons that would be built by a private, for-profit corporation,” the statement reads. 

“When you have the worst prisons in the country, the solution is not to build more. The solution is to enact smart, commonsense reforms to provide treatment, services, and alternatives in communities and keep people out of prison,”  said LaTonya Tate, executive director of Alabama Justice Initiative and a 2018 Soros Justice Fellow.

A U.S. Department of Justice report released in April 2019 details numerous problems federal investigators found in Alabama’s overcrowded and understaffed men’s prisons with respect to sexual violence, assaults and corruption. 

The report also found that the state Legislature’s previous reforms to sentencing laws, done in an effort to reduce prison population, were not made retroactive and had a “minimal effect” on the issues raised in the investigation.

Recent legislation aimed at more sentencing reforms and other changes lawmakers hoped might fix more of the state’s prison problems stalled after the COVID-19 crisis temporarily halted this year’s Legislative session. It’s possible that Ivey could call for a special session to address the prison problems, however. 

The DOJ report also noted in the report that new prisons alone won’t be enough to safeguard the inmates’ Constitutional protections from cruel and unusual punishment. 

“While new facilities might cure some of these physical plant issues, it is important to note that new facilities alone will not resolve the contributing factors to the overall unconstitutional condition of ADOC prisons, such as understaffing, culture, management deficiencies, corruption, policies, training, non-existent investigations, violence, illicit drugs, and sexual abuse,” the report reads. “And new facilities would quickly fall into a state of disrepair if prisoners are unsupervised and largely left to their own devices, as is currently the case.”

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The Alabama Department of Corrections on Tuesday said that a 41-year-old inmate who died Monday after falling ill was not showing symptoms of COVID-19 and so was not tested for the virus. 

Colony Nicole Wilson, 41, complained of feeling sick while at the Birmingham Women’s Community Based Facility and Community Work Center and was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital, where she died at 10:24 a.m. Monday, according to the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office. 

ADOC spokesperson Samantha Rose, in a response to APR on Tuesday, said that Wilson was not tested for COVID-19 because she was not showing symptoms of coronavirus and that more information about her death would be available once the investigation into her death is complete. 

Asked whether Wilson was tested for COVID-19 after her death, Rose declined to answer the question and said that “this does not fall under our purview nor do we have any influence over this type of decision” and directed the question to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, which conducts autopsies of inmates.

Rose did not immediately respond to questions about whether ADOC knows if Wilson has been tested post-death, or how the department could take proper precautions to safeguard staff and other inmates at the Birmingham women’s work center without knowing whether Wilson had the virus or not.

Attempts to reach the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences late Tuesday afternoon were unsuccessful.

Asked whether inmates at the Birmingham women’s work center had been placed on quarantine following the death, Rose said that because Wilson was not showing symptoms of the virus and was not under quarantine at the time after being exposed to someone who had coronavirus, the facility has not been placed on quarantine.

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A woman serving at the Birmingham Women’s Community Based Facility and Community Work Center died Monday after falling ill and being taken to a local hospital, according to the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office. 

Colony Nicole Wilson, 40, complained of feeling sick while at the Birmingham work release center and was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital, where she died at 10:24 a.m. Monday, according to the coroner’s office.

The circumstances surrounding the death are being investigated by the Alabama Department of Corrections’ Investigations and Intelligence Division, the release states.

Wilson had served more than 14 years of her 20-year sentence after being convicted in August 2005 of aggravated child abuse, according to court records and information from the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. 

It was unclear Tuesday whether Wilson was showing symptoms of COVID-19, or whether she had been tested for the virus. Attempts to reach an ADOC spokeswoman weren’t immediately successful Tuesday morning.

No other inmate at the Birmingham work release center had been tested for the virus as of Monday, according to ADOC, and no workers at the facility had self-reported receiving a positive test result for coronavirus. 

Wilson’s death is the fourth unexplained death of state inmates in recent weeks. ADOC has said the department continues to investigate those deaths. 

Arthur Ahmed, 69, died May 6 while serving out his sentence for first-degree assault at the St. Clair prison, where a total of three inmates have tested positive for the virus and at least one has died after testing positive for COVID-19.

No foul play is suspected at this time, the department said, and Ahmed had not been diagnosed with or tested positive for COVID-19 prior to his death, though ADOC refused to say whether a test had been performed on Ahmed.

“While Ahmed’s exact cause of death is pending the results of a full autopsy, at the time of his passing inmate Ahmed was not exhibiting signs or symptoms of COVID-19, was not under quarantine following direct exposure to an inmate or staff member who previously had tested positive, and was not in medical isolation as a result of a positive COVID-19 test,” department spokesperson Samantha Rose said in a statement.

Richard Jason Reed, 35, of Etowah County died May 2 at the Bullock County prison, ADOC confirmed in a message to APR on May 4. 

“While Reed’s exact cause of death is pending the results of a full autopsy, at the time of his passing inmate Reed was not exhibiting signs or symptoms of COVID-19, was not under quarantine following direct exposure to an inmate or staff member who previously had tested positive, and was not in medical isolation as a result of a positive COVID-19 test,” ADOC spokeswoman Rose said in the message. 

Alvin Daniels, 68, died on April 25 at the Limestone prison and although no foul play is suspected, his exact cause of death is also pending an autopsy, Rose told APR on April 28.

Nine state inmates in seven facilities had tested positive for coronavirus as of Monday, and 19 prison workers at 12 facilities had self-reported that they had coronavirus, according to ADOC. At least one inmate has died from COVID-19.

ADOC has tested 116 of the state’s approximately 22,000 inmates as of Monday.

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The ACLU of Alabama filed a public records request Monday seeking a full roster of everyone who is being held in the Birmingham City Jail, the date of their booking, and the charge(s) for which they are being held.

The group claims that they made an attempt on Friday May 8, to get the information but were thwarted by staff at the Birmingham City Jail and Birmingham Police Department. The police were unwilling to release this information, even though the ACLU claims that it should be openly available to any citizen as a matter of public record.

“Citizens are entitled to know who is being held in taxpayer-funded jails and why, and that information has never been more critical than in the current COVID-19 pandemic,” said investigative reporter Beth Shelburne. “A jail roster, which is public information, should be readily available to anyone who asks for it. It should not require credentials or a formal open records request. If Birmingham police are unwilling to release the list of people inside the city jail, along with how long they have been there and why they are there, we have to wonder what they are trying to hide.”

Shelburne wrote in her letter, “Under the Alabama Open Records Law, Ala. Code § 36-12-40 to § 36-12-41, I am requesting the roster from the Birmingham City Jail to include all people in custody, date of booking, and charge(s) for which they are being held.”

“I would like to request a waiver of all fees in that the disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest,” Shelburne continued. “I currently work as a freelance journalist and I anticipate this information will be used in my reporting for The Campaign for Smart Justice with ACLU of Alabama. This information is not being sought for commercial purposes. The statute requires a response in a reasonable time period. If access to the records I am requesting will take longer than three business days, please contact me with information about when I might expect copies or the ability to inspect the requested records. If you deny any or all of this request, please cite each specific exemption you feel justifies the refusal to release the information and notify me of the appeal procedures available under the law.”

The ACLU of Alabama claims that Alabama jails and imprisons an excessive number of citizens.

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