MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts publicly shared details about an upcoming prison audit for the first time on Wednesday.
Chief Examiner Rachel Riddle addressed members of the Joint Legislative Prison Oversight Committee at its regular meeting and explained the basic outline of how the office will conduct the audit.
The prison audit pilot program came to be after Sen. Larry Stutts filed a bill to create a new oversight coordinator position and office in the examiners’ department.
The office’s duties would have included monitoring the safety and retention of correctional officers and staff and the “occurrence of systemic issues within the Department of Corrections which negatively impact the health, safety, welfare, and rehabilitation of individuals in the custody of the department.”
His bill passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee during this year’s session. Instead of bringing it to the Senate floor, Stutts struck a deal with ADOC to create a pilot program without legislation.
Stutts previously said he introduced the bill to increase accountability within the prison system, repeatedly referencing “The Alabama Solution,” a 2025, Oscar-nominated documentary chronicling poor prison conditions and violence allegedly committed by corrections officers.
Riddle said the program will begin with an audit of a single prison but did not specify which one.
The audit will look into several of the big issues outlined in Stutts’ bill, including prison conditions, medical care, lockdown procedures, inmate and staff deaths and complaint resolution, she said.
In addition to analyzing numbers, Riddle said her office plans to conduct interviews with prisoners and staff to get a feel for what’s going on inside the facilities.
She said her office hopes to enter the prison some time this summer and plans to have a completed report to lawmakers in October. Riddle emphasized that the agency is an apolitical and fair body.
“I just want to make sure that the report released is a good final product for y’all,” Riddle said. “I don’t want to rush something, I think it’s too important to get it right on the front end.”
Riddle said the department will not contract the audit out, except to connect with experts about specific elements of the prison system.
Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, reiterated to the public that the ADOC is not involved in the audit.
“This is not a situation that the Department of Corrections is involved in or directing at all,” England said. “I would dare to say there are some issues with public trust involving the Department of Corrections and also issues with transparency with the Department of Corrections. I think it’s important, how you’re stressing, that this is a completely separate, independent audit of the operations of a prison in the state of Alabama.”
Riddle said that this first audit and report will help to inform her department what kind of information lawmakers need.
“I want this to be a good informational, efficient process that helps you, as a policymaker, make decisions,” Riddle said.