The U.S. Department of Justice, having sued Alabama over prison conditions, filed a statement in a lawsuit brought by inmates alleging unconstitutional levels of violence and excessive force against them, The Associated Press reports. The statement was filed in a 2014 lawsuit by St. Clair Correctional Facility inmates. Justice Department officials said Alabama’s request for summary judgment should be rejected if there is a genuine dispute over the accusations because, “these allegations, if proven, establish Eighth Amendment violations.” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the DOJ Civil Rights Division said, The Constitution requires prison officials to take reasonable steps to protect the people in their custody." She emphasized the importance of preventing widespread violence and sexual abuse in prisons and jails.
The Alabama Department of Corrections will respond this month. A group of inmates housed at St. Clair Correctional Facility alleged that the Alabama Department of Corrections has failed to address a pattern of excessive force, prisoner-on-prisoner violence and sexual assault at the prison. The maximum-security prison houses about 1,000 male inmates The Justice Department filed suit in 2020 against the state of Alabama accusing state officials of failing to protect male prisoners across the state from inmate-on-inmate violence and excessive force at the hands of prison staff. The Alabama Department of Corrections has disputed the allegations in both cases.