Families describe assaults and deaths behind bars during hearing on Alabama prison conditions

MONTGOMERY, Alabama — Deandre Roney told officials at the Alabama prison where he was being held that he feared for his life because another inmate had threatened him, his sister said. On June 8, months before his scheduled release, the 39-year-old was stabbed to death.

Money the family had saved to help him rebuild his life after prison was instead used to bury him, relatives said.

“We just want justice and answers,” Chante Roney, his sister, told a committee of state lawmakers during a meeting Wednesday prison conditions.

Family members of people incarcerated in Alabama prisons filled the public hearing held by the Joint Legislative Prison Committee, a panel of lawmakers that focuses on prison oversight. Some wore T-shirts with photos of their loved ones, as relatives described assaults, rapes, extortion, deaths and the rampant availability of drugs and overdoses behind bars.

Alabama’s prison system has long been criticized for its high levels of violence, overcrowding and chronic understaffing. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in 2020 v. Alabama, arguing that conditions in the prison system — which the Justice Department has called one of the most understaffed and violent in the country — are so poor that they violate the ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

At least four speakers told how their family members died in Alabama prisons.

Chante Roney said her brother told prison staff at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility about his fears that he would be attacked. On the day he died, he called his family and asked them to try to talk to someone in charge so he could be moved.

“Two hours later we got a call that my brother had been stabbed in the head and back and left outside,” Chante Roney said. “I feel like DOC should have done more to protect him. Now we have only memories, no answers, and broken hearts.”

Betty Martin said her son Derrek Martin was beaten to death in December 2023 at Elmore Correctional Facility. While still serving a 20-year sentence for robbery, Martin regularly received photos of Derrek’s injuries from the near-daily beatings, sent to her by other inmates via banned cell phones.

“He said to me, ‘I’m sending you these pictures because you might need them someday. They’re going to kill me here,'” Martin said after the hearing.

Martin contacted the facility several times to ask if Derrek could be transferred to protective custody, but was told that the facility was full. In December, Martin got the phone call she had been dreading. Derrek had been attacked by another inmate and was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

Chase Mathis told prison officials he was afraid for his life, his father said. He died June 4, the day after he was transferred to another prison. His father, Tim Mathis, said he wants answers. He worries his son may have been killed by a lethal dose of drugs administered against his will. His son was sent to prison after being convicted of manslaughter in the car crash his friend was killed when Case was driving drunk.

“We had no idea this would be a death sentence,” said Tim Mathis.

Eddie Burkhalter, a researcher at the nonprofit Alabama Appleseed, a law and justice center, said the prison system saw a record 325 deaths last year, including at least 10 murders.

The Alabama Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Alabama’s prison system has been under heavy federal oversight for several years. A federal judge ruled in 2017 that the state’s mental health care for inmates is “grossly inadequate.” The Alabama Department of Corrections, which is facing a staff shortageraised officer pay in an effort to recruit and retain more correctional officers. Rep. Chris England, a committee member and frequent critic of the prison system and the parole board, said conditions remain unacceptable.

Senator Vivian Davis Figures, who is not a member of the committee, addressed the panel at the end of the meeting, urging her colleagues to make prisons a priority.

“We have lost so many lives in our state prisons that it is unacceptable,” Figures said. “And it is truly unacceptable.”