On any given night at Alabama's notoriously violent Holman prison, staffing shortages are so severe that positions guarding key areas like death row, the solitary confinement unit and dormitories often go unfilled.

The gaps in coverage are outlined in internal employee attendance logs obtained recently by AL.com that detail staffing levels for the nights of Oct. 24 and Oct. 25 at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

Responding to a series of questions about the documents, Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Horton acknowledged that "severe understaffing creates significant security and safety issues for both staff and inmates" both at Holman and other correctional facilities across the state.

The timesheets list 34 posts that should ideally be filled at the prison each night, ranging from manning guard towers to working in the facility's medical unit, according to former Holman lieutenant Timothy Stidham, who reviewed the documents in detail.

But the logs, which were reviewed by the DOC, show that only 18 people worked the night shift at the prison on Oct. 24 and only 16 did so on Oct. 25. And codes written next to their names in the documents indicate that on Oct. 24 at least two of the officers working that night went home at 10 p.m., Stidham said.

Internal employee attendance logs obtained recently by AL.com detail staffing levels for the nights of Oct. 24 and Oct. 25 at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. (Connor Sheets | csheets@al.com)

The logs, which provide a detailed snapshot of a problem that Stidham, Horton and others say persists to varying degrees year-round, offer new, on-the-ground documentation of Holman's worst staffing crisis in years.

The DOC's in-depth response to the logs obtained by AL.com comes at a time when the department is under intense scrutiny and political pressure. In October, the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into overcrowding, violence, rape and other problems that have long plagued the state's prison system.

Gov. Robert Bentley this week reiterated his commitment to a controversial plan to address endemic problems in the state's correctional facilities by borrowing $800 million and building four new prisons.

For years, some state lawmakers pushed measures to reduce the prison population, successfully passing new sentencing guidelines and other reforms, but prisons across the state remain badly overcrowded and understaffed to this day.

'A significant issue'

Stidham worked as an Alabama correctional officer at other DOC facilities for five years before he became a lieutenant at Holman, where he says he oversaw other officers for two years ending April 1, 2016.

Given his experience at the violent prison, he said he was not surprised to see the number of posts left unfilled the nights of Oct. 24 and 25, but that it indicated that things are still about as bad as they were when he worked there.

"You are supposed to have someone in the kitchen, which they don't. You're supposed to have someone in the health unit and there's nobody there. You're supposed to have someone on death row, but there's nobody there," Stidham said as he examined a copy of the Oct. 25 night log, which he said actually reflects higher staffing levels than he experienced many nights at the facility.

"You're supposed to have someone in each dorm, and there's no one in four of them; there's five dorms. That's according to Holman's [standard operating procedures.]"

The vast majority of the approximately 800 inmates at Holman - which was designed to hold just 581 prisoners - live in those dorms, which are essentially vast open rooms packed with beds. Holman is also home to the largest of Alabama's two men's death rows, which DOC records show was built to hold 56 people but was at 282 percent capacity with 158 prisoners as of September.

Horton said that a total of 58 correctional officers, four correctional officer trainees and 17 correctional supervisors worked a variety of different shifts over the course of Oct. 24. That number is just "35% of the 166 authorized officers. The officer shortage is a significant issue at Holman." The logs obtained by AL.com reflect only staffing on the night shift.

Overall, Holman was only 40.8 percent staffed as of August, down from 62.7 percent a year earlier and 82.8 percent in 2010, according to DOC records. For the month of August in years between 2000 - when the prison was 74.7 percent staffed - and 2015, staffing levels never fell below 62.7 or rose above 2003's staffing level of 91.5 percent. The DOC does not display staffing records dating before 2000 on its website, and Horton said it "[w]ill take time to research" staffing levels and other statistics from earlier years.

While staffing levels have varied over the past 16 years, overcrowding has remained a constant at Holman, with occupancy rates at the prison hovering around 140 percent.

'No officers in the dorm'

Horton offered an explanation for why so few correctional officers worked the night shift on at least two dates at a prison with a national reputation for violence and overcrowding, but he did not attempt to excuse the situation.

"On the night of Oct. 24, two officers were providing security for two inmates assigned to different hospitals. In addition, four officers were off duty because of illness," he said. "Three other officers did not report for their shift for unknown reasons. The shift shows five officers working overtime to compensate for the officer shortage."

In addition to the staffing levels, the distribution of labor at Holman also varies from day to day, as evidenced by the logs.

On the night of Oct. 25, one officer was in charge of supervising both the prison's death row and its segregation or "SEG" - otherwise known as solitary confinement - unit, as opposed to Oct. 24, when each had its own dedicated supervising officer.

Neither facility was adequately staffed either night, according to Horton and Stidham.

"The segregation unit at Holman should be staffed with two roving correctional officers, a supervisor and one additional officer," he said. "Again, understaffing creates officers (sic) shortages."

And staffing gaps are directly linked to heightened levels of violence.

"ADOC statistics show that as staffing levels decrease, the number of violent incidents increase," Horton said.

Between September 2011 and September 2016, the number of violent incidents at Alabama prisons increased as staffing levels fell. (Alabama Department of Corrections)

Stabbings and other dangerous attacks have long been commonplace at Holman. Between Oct. 1, 2015 and Sept. 30, 2016, the most recent 12-month period for which cumulative DOC disciplinary data is available, there were 171 assaults at Holman. Of those assaults, 25 caused serious injury and several were homicides, including the September stabbing death of a correctional officer by an inmate.

Even former warden Carter F. Davenport was not safe last year, as he and a correctional officer were stabbed during a violent riot at the prison in March 2016.

A current Holman prisoner who spoke with AL.com on condition of anonymity also asserted that understaffing contributes greatly to what he described as an unruly, violent environment. He said inmates are essentially left to their own devices, forced to police and defend themselves and one another.

"Well it's easy to tell it's not enough because we hardly see any [officers] in the dorms except for at count time. We can also feel it by the violence," the prisoner said.

"We break up most fights and stabbings. [There are] no officers in the dorm - period - at night. If someone comes out of Seg, the officers will ask if it's OK for them to come in the blocks."

'Attacked in the hallways'

Working in a severely understaffed Alabama prison also presents significant challenges for guards.

Stidham said he was assaulted 18 times in his final year at Holman, a number he believes would have been lower if the prison was better staffed. Most of the assaults were incidents of prisoners in the segregation unit throwing feces and urine at him, but he said he was also "attacked in the hallways" and had to fight inmates to avoid being badly hurt.

"I want safety for my brothers; that's my whole goal in this. Those guys - the officers - are still my brothers. A lot of them still call me daily because I was lieutenant for them," Stidham said. "I'm most concerned for their lives. When you put up those [staffing] numbers up against that many inmates, their lives are in jeopardy. It's already a dangerous place."

And poor pay and working conditions hamper the DOC's ability to recruit new employees, which only exacerbates the problems in its facilities, Horton said.

In 2016, only about 100 officers graduated from the Alabama Corrections Academy, compared to 200 to 250 graduates in previous years. As such, DOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn will include raises for correctional officers in his 2018 state budget request, according to Horton.

"Overcrowding, facility conditions, workload and fatigue attribute to high attrition and low staffing levels," Horton said. "In addition, Corrections is one of the most dangerous law enforcement jobs and one of the most underpaid. The starting salary for a corrections officer trainee is $28,516.80 annually compared to $35,589.60 for a state trooper trainee."