MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Instances of fighting and assaults on staff within Alabama prisons increased year-over-year in August as state lawmakers continue to grapple with the state’s violent prison system.
According to the new report from the Alabama Department of Corrections, there were 916 total instances of fighting among inmates from October of 2023, the beginning of the current fiscal year, to Aug. 31, representing a roughly 13% increase when compared to the same period last year, which saw 811 documented fights.
Instances of inmate assaults on prison staff had also increased, with 479 cases as of Aug. 31, up from 453 reported the previous year for an increase of more than 5%.
The month of August alone saw 93 documented fights and 57 inmate assaults on prison staff, also an increase when compared to data from August of last year, which saw 83 fights and 41 assaults on staff.
Disciplines for both minor and major infractions were up too, with 3,695 minor and 11,358 major infractions reported in the fiscal year to date through August. This represents an 18% and 14% increase, respectively, over last year.
Inmate-on-inmate assaults, however, were down. Fiscal year to date, there were 1,234 documented assaults within Alabama prisons, down more than 14% from the 1,444 documented during the previous year.
Instances of violence within Alabama prisons were primarily seen in its medium and high security facilities.
Ventress Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison designed to house 650 inmates but currently holds 1,323, saw the highest number of assaults with 246 through August. Limestone Correctional Facility, a high-security prison, saw the second-highest number of assaults at 208.
Violence within Alabama’s prisons has increased over the years, with the prison homicide rate increasing from 13 per 100,000 in 2016 to 85 per 100,000 in 2019, more than seven times the national rate.
That violence has generally been attributed to an overcrowded prison population, exacerbated by the state releasing inmates on parole at among the lowest rates in the country, releasing eligible inmates at a rate of just 8% last year. In recent months, however, the state’s parole rate has climbed significantly.
Regarding staffing, ADOC has been roughly short of 2,000 correctional officers since 2017. Even with a significant increase in correctional officer pay last year, the department has continued to see staffing shortages.
The report comes ahead of the third meeting of the Joint Prison Oversight Committee on Wednesday. The committee’s previous two hearings saw family members and loved ones of incarcerated Alabamians speak by the dozen, recounting stories of prisons fraught with violence, murder and extortion.
As of Aug. 31, ADOC’s jurisdictional population, which includes all incarcerated Alabamians, including those in county jails or federal prisons, was 27,428, up from the 26,947 from the same time last year.