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Jeffrey Hall was moved from an honor dorm to another dorm on March 28 at Limestone Correctional Facility. Less than 12 hours later, he was found dead.
“On Friday, March 29, 2024, an inmate death was reported at Limestone Correctional Facility,” the Alabama Department of Corrections wrote in a statement. “Inmate Jeffery Michael Hall was discovered unresponsive in his cell. Medical staff responded and he was pronounced deceased by the attending physician. Hall had been under chronic care for an ongoing medical condition. The ADOC Law Enforcement Services Division is investigating Hall’s death. The cause of death is pending an autopsy and the conclusion of the investigation.”
Lauren Faraino, an attorney for the Hall, released a press statement about the incident. In it, she and Lisa Hall, Jeff’s wife, called for an impartial and external investigation into Jeff’s death.
That’s because Jeff was a known source for the U.S. Department of Justice. Faraino said it was suspicious that a DOJ source ended up dead just hours after being moved to another dorm.
“It is highly suspicious and worthy of an external investigation when an individual known to be supplying the federal government with information about DOC corruption turns up dead merely hours after being moved out of the honor dorm,” Faraino said.
Due to his circumstances as a DOJ source, Jeff’s sudden move to a new dorm and not trusting ADOC to conduct a fair investigation warrants an external investigation, they said.
“The lack of impartiality within ADOC raises concerns about potential official corruption,” Lisa said.
Lisa told APR that she heard from other incarcerated individuals that the dorm Jeff was moved to contained gang members. APR also received separate messages from an incarcerated source who said the same: that correctional officers moved Jeff to a dorm with gang members.
Lisa also refuted part of the ADOC’s statement that said Jeff was under chronic care for an ongoing medical condition. Lisa said he did have some medical problems, but nothing serious that she was aware of that would have killed him.
APR was informed that before Jeff’s death, another DOJ source, William Sullivan, died in 2022. APR covered Sullivan’s death and he died after being taken to ADOC’s medical facility at Kilby instead of a hospital in Montgomery. ADOC’s spokeswoman told APR that Sullivan was sent to Kilby because medical staff observed he could get the appropriate amount of care at Kilby.
“In this instance, William Sullivan’s presenting symptoms were assessed by medical staff and it was determined that an appropriate level of care could be provided at Kilby Correctional Facility,” Kristi Simpson said. “Unfortunately, his condition deteriorated rapidly.
APR has reported on numerous occasions of alleged medical neglect occurring inside ADOC medical facilities.
According to a DOJ investigation into Alabama’s prisons, there are several constitutional violations in Alabama’s prisons. In 2020, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against Alabama for the unconstitutional conditions prevalent in men’s prisons.
“The Department of Justice conducted a thorough investigation of Alabama’s prisons for men and determined that Alabama violated and is continuing to violate the Constitution because its prisons are riddled with prisoner-on-prisoner and guard-on-prisoner violence,” the department said in a press release. “The violations have led to homicides, rapes, and serious injuries. The Department of Justice looks forward to proving its case in an Alabama federal courtroom.”
The trial is finally set to begin in November 2024.
In 2023, 325 people died in Alabama prisons, marking the highest total of deaths since the statistic has been recorded. This put Alabama’s prison death rate at five times the national average. At least 40 individuals have already died so far in 2024, according to statistics kept by incarcerated advocates.
Faraino condemned the constant flux of individuals dying in ADOC facilities.
“The Alabama Department of Corrections has become comfortable with the constant flow of deaths out of their prisons,” Faraino stated. “We, the public, will never accept this brutality and lack of accountability as normal.”
