The Alabama Department of Corrections operates one of the U.S.’s deadliest, most dysfunctional prison systems. Injustice Watch launched this series in February 2020 to examine problems at the corrections agency related to state prisoner Billy Smith’s 2017 death.
Billy Smith’s 2017 death highlighted broader problems at Elmore Correctional Facility, an overcrowded and understaffed prison with a history of abusive, neglectful managers.
Her experience echoes other troubling accounts about how Alabama prison officials handle critically injured or sick prisoners and their families during medical crises, and how little they reveal about those cases, even when inmates die.
The family of Marquette Cummings sued the Alabama prison system in 2015 after doctors took him off life support under instructions from a warden.
Alabama investigators detailed the brutal events that led to Billy Smith’s death — including dousing him with water while unresponsive and a nurse who refused to treat him.