A new HBO documentary is bringing national attention to the problems behind Alabama's prison walls. The issues raised in the documentary have the attention of Alabama's Joint Prison Committee.
) - A new HBO documentary is bringing national attention to the problems behind Alabama ’s prison walls, and it was topic of discussion in the state legislature’s joint prison committee . The Wednesday morning meeting was the first time the committee has held a public meeting since the documentary’s release.
Some people who attended the meeting wore t-shirts that called for more transparency in the Alabama Department of Corrections. Matthew Charles, a prison reform advocate who served more than two decades behind bars on drug charges, said the documentary was hard to watch. “It was alarming, it was sad, it was hurtful,” he said. “I’ve actually seen first-hand some of those abuses take place.” Charles is calling on lawmakers to push for an independent prison oversight. He said allowing for internal reviews of reported abuse is not adequate. “Here’s a neutral party going in, addressing issues that the Department of Justice already said exist in Alabama prisons and trying to come up with a solution to correct them,” he said. Rep. Chris England talked about the documentary directly, referring to a portion that alleges that an Alabama officer beat an inmate to death and is still working for the ADOC. “You would get the impression from watching the film and also looking at your own evidence that the system not only encourages it, but it also enables it,” said Rep. England. ”So in order to root that sort of thing out and make the public know we are aware of those things, folks like that can’t work for us.” Rep. Matt Simpson did not talk about the documentary by name but did praise the arrests of more than 100 ADOC staff members under Commissioner John Hamm’s tenure. “Yes, it may look like a black eye in the newspaper, but at the end of the day, that is exactly the accountability to help change the culture,” he said.Highway 80 in Lowndes County back open after Tuesday multi-vehicle crashDA seeks to increase bond for released Montgomery mass shooting suspect
Prison The Alabama Solution Joint Prison Committee Documentary Chris England Matthew Charles Matt Simpson
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