Is the serious humanitarian crisis developing at Holman Prison an ADOC ploy to build more prisons?

by Free Alabama Movement

Atmore, Alabama. Sept. 16, 2016 – A serious humanitarian crisis is developing at Holman Prison as correctional officers continue to walk off of the job amid concerns about safety and apathy from Warden Terry Raybon and the office of ADOC Commissioner Jefferson S. Dunn, as violence, including deadly stabbings and assaults continue to mount.

Several officers expressed dismay and fear after learning that two of their fellow officers, Officer Brian Ezell and another officer, reported to Warden Raybon that they had knives drawn on them and their lives threatened and that neither Warden Raybon nor Commissioners Jeff Dunn and Grantt Culliver would take any action to ensure their safety. Both of these officers then quit.

Several other officers have also quit in the past three weeks after witnessing a stabbing of a fellow officer in the temple and who had remained hospitalized with life threatening injuries until he was pronounced dead earlier today. This after a former warden, Carter Davenport, was stabbed in March amidst back to back riots and other violence at Holman.

Since Sept. 13, 2016, when Warden Raybon released approximately 20 people from segregation, most of whom were in segregation for violent incidents – only to see several stabbings take place, including one person critically injured and another losing an eye – a total of eight more officers have either quit or turned in their two-week notices.

Now officers are expressing concern that the commissioners of the ADOC are intentionally exacerbating violence at the expense of human life in efforts to push forward their plan to extort the public for $1.5 billion to build new prisons in next year’s legislative session.

Officers are expressing concern that the commissioners of the ADOC are intentionally exacerbating violence at the expense of human life in efforts to push forward their plan to extort the public for $1.5 billion to build new prisons in next year’s legislative session.

Officers have begun to express support for the non-violent stance of Free Alabama Movement and their efforts to expose corruption, violence and other issues plaguing Holman and other Alabama prisons. And they have gone so far as to make repeated requests to Warden Raybon for the release of FAM co-founder and organizer Kinetik Justice from solitary confinement.

Officers now feel that he is being wrongfully detained and want him out of solitary because he has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to conduct peaceful demonstrations at Holman Prison to bring attention to issues within the ADOC and Holman.

We are asking that everyone call Commissioner Dunn and Warden Raybon and demand that they post daily reports of the staffing levels and incidents of violence taking place at Holman as a matter of public safety.

We are further requesting assistance in finding a human rights attorney and human rights observers to report to Holman immediately, as the level of violence is skyrocketing and the men at Holman are left in a virtual war zone to fend for themselves, while officers continue to walk off the job in what is already the most understaffed prison in America.

Officers are so afraid to enter the dorms that routine security functions like conducting count are being done by the incarcerated men themselves. Video footage attesting to this fact are widely available online and across social media.

You can help

Family members of those incarcerated at Holman are requested to call Commissioners Dunn and Culliver continuously and demand that their loved ones be immediately removed from Holman, as there are insufficient officers to secure the prison. Supporters of Free Alabama Movement are asked to call them as well and urge that security with full staffing be restored immediately and that administrators hold frequent and candid meetings with representatives chosen by the prisoners.

• Warden Terry Raybon, Holman Correctional Facility, 251-368-8173
• Commissioner Jefferson Dunn and Commissioner Grantt Culliver, 334-353-3883 (switchboard operator)

Write to [email protected] your message of support for those men in Holman, especially Robert L. Council, Melvin Ray and James Pleasant, who made up their minds years ago to end prison slavery and have made a way out of no way, using every means they could access by themselves to spread the word and create the movement that produced the Sept. 9 prison strikes across the country that are making news around the world as the largest prison strike in history. And they have only just begun! Encourage them. Power to the people!

Contact Free Alabama Movement via National Representative Pastor Kenneth S. Glasgow of The Ordinary People’s Society, 334-791-2433 or [email protected].