Thread by @bradheath

This is significant: The Justice Department says conditions in Alabama's prisons violate prisoners' Eighth Am. rights by failing to protect them from violence and sexual assault. The violations are "severe" and "systematic."

DOJ says its investigation found "an excessive amount of violence, sexual abuse, and prisoner deaths occur within Alabama's prisons on a regular basis."

Here's the whole report: justice.gov/opa/press-rele…

DOJ: In 2 1/2 years, 27 inmates were murdered in Alabama's prisons, including three homicides the state hadn't previously disclosed.

In one case, Alabama's prison system said an inmate died of natural causes even though he had been stabbed four days earlier in a knife fight, and one wound was so deep it reached his skull. He had meth in his system when he died, and the autopsy said it was a homicide.

DOJ says "prisoner-on-prisoner violence is systemic and life-threatening," and Alabama's prison system "is failing to adequately protect its prisoners from harm, in violation of the Eighth Amendment."

One Alabama inmate reported to officers that he was being forced to perform sex acts on other prisoners over a drug debt. When he reported it, DOJ says, "the officer told him that because he was in debt to another prisoner, nothing could be done."

DOJ found Alabama inmates had easy access to homemade weapons. One prisoner said a guard told him he would need a knife to survive. Some of the homemade knives were "as big as machetes." One looked like this:

DOJ: Many officials in Alabama's prisons "appear to accept the high level of violence and sexual abuse in ADOC as a normal course of business, including acquiescence to the idea that prisoners will be subjected to sexual abuse."

DOJ: Alabama prison officials dismissed allegations of sexual abuse by gay prisoners as "consensual 'homosexual activity' without further investigation, implying that a gay man cannot be raped."

This whole thing is pretty remarkable: justice.gov/opa/press-rele…

Story: Justice Department inquiry finds prison inmates in Alabama are routinely exposed to horrifying violence and sexual abuse within "a broken system" where people are murdered "on a regular basis and officials turned a blind eye to mistreatment.

usatoday.com/story/news/pol…

The Justice Department's conclusion that the way Alabama runs its prisons is notable because DOJ is itself the operator of a large and understaffed prison system. Also, much of the investigation took place under AG Jeff Sessions, who was critical of broad civil-rights probes.