Alabama Officers Charged with Negligent Homicide of Incarcerated Man

On Could 10, two Alabama correctional officers have been arrested on prices linked to the dying of Jason Kirkland in a segregation unit at Donaldson Correctional Facility close to Birmingham, Alabama. Mr. Kirkland was 27 years outdated. He was serving a 15-year sentence for nonviolent offenses.

Donaldson correctional officers John Rodgers and Latasha Terrell have been charged with criminally negligent murder for failing to render assist to a mentally ailing man who unnecessarily suffocated and died whereas they have been on obligation.

Up to now 18 months, not less than three folks have died in segregated housing at Donaldson after officer neglect.

On December 7, 2020, Tommy Rutledge died in a solitary confinement cell the place the temperature exceeded 100 levels. His core physique temperature was recorded at 109 levels previous to his dying.

On February 23, 2022, Victor Russo was discovered unresponsive in a segregation unit cell with blunt power trauma accidents. At some point earlier than collapsing, Mr. Russo had written a letter to the warden saying {that a} lieutenant at Donaldson had struck him repeatedly within the head and sprayed chemical brokers in his mouth earlier than inserting him in segregation with out medical consideration. The officer, Lt. Mohammad Jenkins, was subsequently charged with assault.

Different prisoners have died after officers at Donaldson have used extreme power in responding to incidents.

In October 2019, Steven Davis, 35, died after he was struck repeatedly within the head by correctional employees. In line with the Justice Division, “Quite a few prisoner witnesses reported that correctional officers continued to strike the prisoner after he dropped any weapons and posed no menace.”

In June 2020, Darnell McMillian, 38, died in a suicide watch cell after a lieutenant sprayed a big quantity of irritating chemical brokers into the cell. Alabama Division of Corrections information verify that after the usage of power, Mr. McMillian was “non-verbal and unresponsive” and he was pronounced lifeless an hour later.

Though Jason Kirkland died in July 2021, the costs towards Mr. Rodgers and Ms. Terrell have been filed solely two weeks in the past. The officers continued to be employed by the Division of Corrections till they have been arrested.

A lawsuit filed in December 2020 by the Division of Justice towards Alabama and the state’s Division of Corrections alleges that the state “is intentionally detached to the intense and systemic constitutional issues current in Alabama’s Prisons.”

Regardless of the persevering with disaster in Alabama’s prisons, no vital adjustments have been carried out to enhance circumstances or security.