(from Free Alabama Movement)

The Free Alabama Movement (FAM), composed of some of the men and women incarcerated in Alabama state prisons, along with their family members and friends, are in urgent need of your help. Currently, three Alabama maximum security prisons for men are on lockdown. At one of those prisons, St. Clair Correctional Facility (SCCF) in Springville, Ala., the men are daily being subjected to beatings by guards and other unprecedented violence.

Furthermore, the U.S. Dept. of Justice has just ended an investigation of Alabama’s Tutwiler Prison for Women, where the women have been habitually raped and sexually abused by the male guards and staff going back 20 years.

Please help FAM with its campaign to get the man fired who is responsible for the reign of terror at SCCF, Warden Carter Davenport, and to get Tutwiler’s warden, Bobby Barrett, fired. Send the letter below to Col. Jefferson Dunn, who (after retiring from the Air Force) will take office in March as the new commissioner of the Alabama Dept. of Corrections (ADOC).

This is how to send the letter: 1. Go to the ADOC website, http://www.doc.state.al.us 2. Click Contact Us. 3. Click Constituent Services

4.Cut and paste the letter the below. Don’t forget to sign it before sending. You do not have to give your address, but may do so if you want.

You may also call Paula Argo (executive assistant to the interim ADOC commissioner) at (334)353-3870. Tell her (or whoever answers the phone) that you want Warden Carter Davenport and Warden Bobby Barrett to be fired.

Help spread the word!. Pass this on to other people and ask for their help.

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Col. Jefferson Dunn

Incoming Commissioner

Alabama Department of Corrections

Dear Col. Dunn:

I have recently read reports about the unprecedented violence at St. Clair Correctional Facility (SCCF) in Springville, Ala. According to these reports, Carter Davenport, the warden at the SCCF, is responsible for this violence.

In 2010, former ADOC Commissioner Kim Thomas appointed Davenport as SCCF’s the warden At the time St. Clair, was the least violent maximum security prison in Alabama, with only 23 incidents of violence for a prison population of approximately 1,300 men.

Just three years later, the violence level at St. Clair quadrupled, to 101 violent incidents in 2013, including two murders. By 2014, six people had been killed, including four murders in 2014 alone. St. Clair prison’s population would witness historic levels of violence that would ultimately make the prison one of the worst in the nation.

Davenport has created a toxic and hopeless environment where violence rules and where there is no accountability and no respect for administrative regulations and no resources allocated to education and rehabilitation. He has overseen an administration that has repeatedly violated the civil and human rights of the men incarcerated under his authority. In 2012, Davenport himself was suspended for beating a man at St. Clair who was in handcuffs.

Under Davenport’s watch, six (6) people have been killed at St. Clair prison: Jamie Bell, John Rutledge, Marquette Cummings, Tim Duncan, Jodie Waldrop and Jabari Bascomb. Since the start of 2015, a wave of violence has taken St. Clair by storm. As of January 23, I am told, over 20 people have been stabbed; officers have beaten several people; the Riot Team was called in; the prison went on lockdown; and several men are still hospitalized.

Prior to Davenport’s arrival at St. Clair prison, the men incarcerated, in conjunction with previous Warden David Wise and Warden DeAngelo Burrell, founded a program called Convicts Against Violence (CAV). This program was largely responsible for bringing down the violence level at St. Clair to the historic lows that were in place when Davenport arrived. He stopped the Convicts Against Violence program, and to this day, C.A.V. remains the only program that has been stopped. Warden Davenport also ended C.A.V.’s conflict resolution and mediation classes, and the Educational and Mentoring program, which had enrolled and actively engaged over 400 students from L-M and P-Q dorms where predominately black men were/are now “warehoused” with no outlets for their frustration.

The Equal Justice Initiative and the Southern Poverty Law Center have filed class action lawsuits against Davenport and the ADOC for the violent culture and abuse that Davenport has overseen. One man, Joseph Shack, was awarded over $70,000 in 2014 when he was beaten while handcuffed by Sgt. Mason, who remains employed. The Montgomery Advertiser and several others have called for Warden Davenport’s removal.

Finally, as you know, an investigation recently concluded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) found that over the past twenty years, the ADOC has allowed the ongoing sexual abuse of the women incarcerated at Tutwiler Prison for Women. According to the DOJ, this abuse has amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment,” in violation of the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The sexual assaults of the women by male guards and staff at Tutwiler must be stopped. Tutwiler Warden Bobby Barrett has clearly failed in his responsibilities and should be fired immediately

Sir, you have the power to start the process of stopping the human rights violations being committed at St. Clair Correctional Facility and Tutwiler Prison for Women. Fire Warden Carter Davenport and Warden Bobby Barrett. immediately.

Sincerely,