Alabama Inmates Strike, Denouncing Prison Conditions

The New York Times, September 28, 2022: Alabama Inmates Strike, Denouncing Prison Conditions

“Thousands of Alabama inmate workers began a labor strike this week to protest poor prison conditions across the state, where facilities are overcrowded, understaffed and notoriously dangerous.

“The protest, which also calls for broader criminal justice reforms, began on Monday. Diyawn Caldwell, the president of Both Sides of the Wall, an advocacy group, said the organization is coordinating the strike with inmates across the state and predicted that about 80 percent of the roughly 25,000 people in prison would participate in the strike, forgoing their usual jobs as cooks and cleaners.

“The strike, an uncommon occurrence in prisons, is intended to draw attention to the overcrowding crisis in Alabama prisons that has long shadowed governors and correctional officials. It also threatens to disrupt the prison system as officials take on the work that inmates usually do.

“Ms. Caldwell’s husband, Cordarius Caldwell, 34, who is incarcerated at Ventress Correctional Facility on a murder offense, said by phone on Tuesday that inmates had received two sack lunches on Monday and Tuesday, rather than the normal three meals.

“The Alabama corrections system has drawn the scrutiny of the Justice Department, which released a report in 2019 that outlined ‘severe, systemic’ conditions across the state’s prisons that violated constitutional protection from cruel and unusual punishment because they were in danger of being raped or murdered.”

Additional reading:

Rolling Stone, October 2, 2022: ‘We Are Human Beings’: Alabama Prisoners Strike to Protest Abusive Conditions, Excessive Sentencing

The Atlantic, October 2, 2022: Dead Man Living: What happened when Alabama tried and failed to kill Alan Eugene Miller

The Marshall Project, October 1, 2022: What an Alabama Prisoners’ Strike Tells Us About Prison Labor