Thread by @michaelharriot

Warning: Graphic content

Last night's @ambermruffin show featured a segment on Alabama's prisons. Of course, we couldn't talk about everything but you should know it's crazy AF

A thread

First of all, Alabama runs the deadliest prisons in America. The mortality rate in Alabama prisons is higher than cancer. Suicides are common. I got involved after I read a report by @eji_org and said WTF?

Soon, I was in contact with ppl on the inside.

theroot.com/everyone-knows…

When COVID first hit, I received a call from a family who hadn't heard from their incarcerated loved one. It turns out that he had caught COVID and was hospitalized.

He was Alabama's 1st inmate to die from COVID.

No one notified his family, which is against the Alabama Department of Corrections rules. But this happens ALL the time in Alabama.

A few weeks ago, another family contacted me. Their son had disappeared after being put in lockup for demanding his meds for a respiratory problem

It turns out, he was in a hospital. But the prison didn't notify his family, the hospital did–not because they wanted to inform them where he was– but because they wanted permission to take him off life support

He died.

COVID is still RAGING through AL's prisons

In August, 191 people tested positive in ONE DAY at the Elmore Correctional Facility.

And It's not just due to negligence and lack of medical care. A lot of this is because MOST Alabama prisons are overcrowded AF–some as high as 500% capacity.

The incarcerated literally have no protection from COVID. They can't social distance. They weren't tested regularly. They were only recently vaccinated. They can't even wash their hands

But don't take my word for it.

*The voices you hear have been altered for their protection.

It's not just COVID & overcrowding, violence is rampant. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the national homicide rate for state prisons is 7 per 100,000 inmates

Alabama's is 62/100,000.

Prisons in AL are like a combination of Squid Game, Hunger Games & The Purge.

The guards don't even try to stop it. One former corrections officer told me she quit because they bet on fights like it's a boxing match.

*warning: This is graphic

But it's not that bad compared to the violence from the guards. They sell drugs. They align with gangs. They attack and kill prisoners.

In Jan, I wrote how the prisoners across Alabama organized a peaceful strike

theroot.com/i-feel-like-im…

And the ADOC even responded.

However, the guards responded in a different way:

One officer told me he quit because he had to either align with the Crips or Bloods. AL corrections officers have been indicted for drugs, violence and murder but, again, don't take my word for it. Everyone's innocent until proven guilty. I'm not a judge or jury.

Oh, wait...

Tell me, do you think prisoners could be safe in an environment where there is NO LAW?

The DOJ doesn't think so. They accused the ADOC of actual murder and said that it fosters a "culture where unlawful uses of force are common" by both inmates and officers.

It's not just the men's prisons. Women incarcerated in Alabama's Julia Tutwiler prison had the 11th highest rate of sexual assault in America.

But here is the thing:

EVERY ONE of the other facilities above it was a male prison.

More than 1 out of every 10 women at Tutwiler are sexually assaulted by an employee of the state of Alabama. So many, in fact, PBS made a documentary about pregnant women in prison

It's called "Tutwiler."

Again, I might be making shit up. Don't take my word; take the DOJ's:

Technically, the 13th Amendment has a loophole that allows slavery for people convicted of a crime, and ADOC takes that loophole seriously. The ADOC leases inmates to private corporations and the state receives minimum wage

How much do the inmates get paid?

None of this is a secret. The DOJ is suing ADOC and the entire state "because Alabama fails to provide adequate protection" from violence, sexual abuse, and "excessive force at the hands of prison staff."

justice.gov/opa/pr/justice…

And, Alabama's prisons are disproportionately Black. AL incarcerates Black men at nearly 5 times the rate of white men. White inmates are 2.6 times more likely to be paroled.

Please don't forget that Alabama allowed judges to override jury verdicts & hand out the death penalty

Don't forget Willie B. Smith, who Ala. executed even though experts said his IQ was too low

Don't forget about Lakeith Smith's 65-yr sentence for a murder the cops committed

And PLEASE don't forget about Nathaniel Woods, who was executed even though everyone agrees that he didn't kill anyone.

Sometimes this shit is hard to believe.

They killed him.

theroot.com/the-spectacula…

Now that we have gotten that out of the way, we come to the actual crazy part.

In September, the state that does not know how to protect prisoners from COVID...

The SAME STATE that had the worst COVID outbreak in America...
usnews.com/news/best-stat…

The same state that the DOJ says has the worst, most unconstitutional prisons in the country...

The same state that imprisons Black men at 5x the rate of white men.

After a project to literally build the biggest private prison in the world fell through, AL came up with a plan:

At the exact time they had the worst COVID outbreak in America, Alabama Republicans hatched a plan to use the COVID relief money to build prisons.

the state ranked 47th in education schools, 48th in infant mortality and the 7th highest poverty rate in America...

They were going to put $400 million into prisons.

INSTEAD of a mass release of nonviolent offenders.
INSTEAD of training corrections officers.
INSTEAD of education or health care.

But first, they need permission from the Treasury department.

These are OUR tax dollars.

Will the Biden Administration give our money to a racist, corrupt, violent organization to LITERALLY continue slavery?

Have you ever MET America?

Stay tuned to The Amber Ruffin Show for more content you shouldn't have to learn about on a comedy show.

Yet, here we are.