“This work helped change the lives of people in Alabama,” said Challen Stephens, acting vice president of news for Alabama Media Group. “And we’re thrilled to see it recognized among so many examples of powerful journalism. Ivana did tremendous work here, and Denied continues to have impact today.”
The reporting found that the Alabama parole board used to release most prisoners who were eligible. But under new leadership, paroles fell to 8% by 2023. That’s despite the board’s own guidelines suggesting more than 80% of prisoners should qualify for a second chance.
The series has led to significant impact. The parole rate rose to 20% the month after the first article, and finished 2024 at 20%, according to state data. That comes out to roughly 250 more people getting out of prison last year than in 2023.
Lawmakers also held hearings and demanded answers, as prisoners featured on AL.com found lawyers or got new hearings that resulted in their release.
“It’s easy for people that aren’t incarcerated to brush off Alabama’s systemic prison issues as things that don’t affect them,” said Hrynkiw. “But, for everyone in the system and everyone with a loved one there, they don’t have that luxury. I hope Denied was able to show the human side of what happens when a state decides to keep everyone locked up for as long as possible.”
Hrynkiw’s series won the IRE Award for Division III, which includes statewide online news outlets.
Finalists in Division III are the Miami Herald, for an investigation of a deadly boat crash, and The Arizona Republic for an investigation that tied the deadly beating of a 16-year-old to a string of assaults by a gang of elite teenagers.
Since 1979, the IRE Awards have recognized outstanding watchdog journalism. The IRE Contest Committee selected this year’s winners from more than 540 entries across 19 categories.
Hrynkiw’s work was also recently named a finalist for a Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association.
Last month, she was recognized as one of Tomorrow’s News Trailblazers by Editor & Publisher Magazine for her reporting on Alabama prisons.
Michelin published its first guide in France in 1900 to increase tire sales by encouraging French motorists to hit the road, and more than a century later, in 2005, Michelin published its first North American Guide for New York City.
Subsequent Michelin Guides have featured such urban dining destinations as Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, as well as statewide guides to California, Florida and Texas.
Now comes the regional guide to the American South, which will include Alabama and five other Southern states — Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee – plus the pre-existing Atlanta guide.
“We are excited to embark on this new journey for the Michelin Guide as this will be the first time since the guide’s North American debut in 2005 that we are launching a regional selection,” Gwendal Poullennec, the international director of the Michelin Guides, said in the announcement.
The Michelin Guide’s anonymous inspectors are already making the rounds, and the 2025 restaurant selections for the American South guide will be revealed sometime later this year.
The Michelin inspectors follow five guidelines in picking the restaurants that make the guides: quality products, harmony of flavors, mastery of cooking techniques, voice and personality of the chef as reflected in the cuisine, and consistency between each visit and throughout the menu. Each restaurant is inspected several times a year.
Restaurants that make the guide are awarded one to three stars, with one being “a very good restaurant in its category,” two signifying “excellent cooking, worth a detour,” and three recognizing “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.”
Earning three Michelin stars is a rare accomplishment, with only 146 three-star restaurants worldwide and just 10 in the United States as of 2024.
(Still, as last year’s Texas guide illustrates, it is not all white-tablecloths and tasting menus. The Lone Star State’s list included its fair share of barbecue joints and strip-mall restaurants.)
In addition to its star system, the Michelin Guide also includes a special award, the Bib Gourmand, to recognize those restaurants that offer “a simpler style of cooking, which is recognizable and easy-to-eat . . . (and) leave you with a sense of satisfaction at having eaten so well at such a reasonable price.”
With all that in mind, here are 12 Birmingham restaurants, representing a variety of cuisines and price points, that we encourage the Michelin inspectors to pay a visit to – if they have not already done so.
We realize that not all 12 will make the American South guide, but we will circle back later this year to see how many of them did.
The crispy fish collar is one of the stars of the menu at James Beard Award-winning chef Adam Evans’ Automatic Seafood and Oysters.(Photo courtesy of Sprouthouse Agency; used with permission)
Van Sykes started working the pit at his family’s Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q in Bessemer when he was 12 years old. (Photo courtesy of Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q; used with permission)
Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q
Van Sykes was all of 12 years old when he started working the pit at the legendary Bessemer barbecue joint that his father, Bob Sykes, started in 1957. Now approaching 70 and one of the elder statesmen of Alabama barbecue, Sykes still does things the way his daddy taught him — cooking pork shoulders, ribs and chickens over hickory coals in an open pit that you see (and smell) the moment you walk into the restaurant. While Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q remains defiantly old-school, it has evolved with the times, serving tacos on Tuesdays, brisket on Wednesdays and loaded potatoes every day of the week.
The parmesan souffle is one of the signature dishes at Bottega restaurant.(AL.com file photo/Tamika Moore)
Bottega
Open since 1988 in the stately Bottega Favorita building on Birmingham’s historic Highland Avenue, this Southern-flavored, Italian-influenced jewel from James Beard Award-winning restaurateurs Frank and Pardis Stitt has maintained a standard of excellence by which all other Birmingham restaurants are measured. (And while the Stitts’ flagship restaurant, Highlands Bar and Grill, has remained closed indefinitely since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, a reservation at Bottega has become the hottest ticket in town.) The service is rarely short of exceptional, and the menu – from the beef carpaccio and the parmesan soufflé to the risotto with lobster and the pappardelle with braised duck – is both familiar and out of this world.
The Bright Star, which opened in Bessemer in 1907, is the oldest family-owned restaurant in Alabama. (Bob Carlton/[email protected])
Bright Star
Recognized as an America’s Classic by the James Beard Foundation in 2010, Bessemer’s Bright Star is the oldest family-owned restaurant in Alabama. These days, Andreas Anastassakis and his cousin Nicky Koikos continue the family tradition that Tom Bonduris began in 1907, not long after he immigrated here from Greece. Classic dishes include seafood gumbo, Greek-style beef tenderloin, fried snapper throats and baklava cheesecake.
Delores Banks, who took ownership of Eagle’s Restaurant in 1993, holds a pan of hot-out-of-the-oven cornbread muffins.(Bob Carlton/[email protected])
Eagle’s Restaurant
A venerable soul food restaurant in the shadows of the ACIPCO plant in North Birmingham, Eagle’s Restaurant has been around since 1951. More than 70 years later, Eagle’s continues to soar, as customers line up outside the tiny, cinder-block café for huge helpings of collard greens, candied yams, black-eyed peas, oxtails and neck bones prepared by Delores Banks and served by her son, Jamal Rucker.
The grilled chorizo meatloaf is one of the most popular dishes on the menu at El Barrio. (AL.com file photo/Joe Songer)
El Barrio Restaurante Y Bar
El Barrio is Spanish for “the neighborhood,” and the menu at this Mexican-inspired restaurant and bar in downtown Birmingham’s Second Avenue North neighborhood features such dishes as plantain nachos, grilled chorizo meatloaf, masa roasted trout and Gulf Shrimp quesadillas.
Angel biscuits with whipped cane syrup butter make an impressive opening act at Helen.(Photo by Bob Carlton/[email protected])
Helen
Chef Rob McDaniel has indelible memories of watching his maternal grandmother, Helen Frutiger, cook over hardwood coals on her indoor grill, so when Rob and his wife, Emily, opened their contemporary Southern grill in downtown Birmingham in 2020, they named their restaurant in honor of the woman who inspired it. The menu features prime meats and fresh seafood, including an oak-fired Kansas City strip, a smoked Joyce Farms half-chicken and a whole Gulf snapper a la plancha – all prepared in an open kitchen with a custom grill and smoker. While the proteins are the main attraction, the warm angel biscuits with whipped cane syrup butter make an impressive opening act.
The Hot and Hot Tomato Salad has been a seasonal fixture on the menu at Hot and Hot Fish Club since the restaurant opened in 1995. (Photo courtesy of Hot and Hot Fish Club)
Hot and Hot Fish Club
Now in its 30th year – and its fifth year in its new location at Pepper Place — James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Hastings’ Hot and Hot Fish Club remains one of Birmingham’s premier fine-dining destinations. The menu, which evolves with the seasons, features Alabama Gulf seafood, farm-raised pork and chicken, and locally grown vegetables. The signature dish, available from late spring through the end of summer, is the Hot and Hot Tomato Salad, a towering stack of sliced tomatoes dressed with field peas, corn, bacon and fried okra.
Johnny’s Restaurant has been a hit in Homewood since chef and owner Timothy Hontzas opened his popular “Greek and three” in 2012.(Bob Carlton/[email protected])
Johnny’s Restaurant
Chef and owner Timothy Hontzas named his popular Homewood “Greek and three” in honor of his grandfather, Jackson, Miss., restaurateur Johnny Hontzopolous, and the food Hontzas painstakingly prepares at Johnny’s Restaurant is a wonderful marriage of his Greek heritage and his Southern upbringing. Keftedes (Greek meatballs) and fasolakia (stewed green beans and tomatoes) share space on the menu board with chicken pot pie and turnip greens. The creamy parmesan grit cake, one of Hontzas’ many specialties, is phenomenal.
Tony Pettus works the steam table line at Niki’s West, which often serves more than 1,000 diners a day.(Bob Carlton/[email protected])
Niki’s West
The mothership of Magic City meat-and-three restaurants, Niki’s West has fed Birmingham since 1957, moving 1,000 or more diners a day through its cafeteria line with Disney World-like efficiency. The portions are generous and the choices numerous, with more than a half-dozen entrees and a couple of dozen sides available daily. If you leave hungry, it’s your own fault.
Saigon Noodle House offers seven varieties of the popular Vietnamese banh mi. (Bob Carlton/[email protected])
Saigon Noodle House
The inspiring story of the extended Vietnamese family who immigrated to America and eventually settled in Birmingham is every bit as remarkable as the food they serve at Saigon Noodle House. In addition to spring rolls and phở noodle bowls, the menu features seven bánh mì sandwiches — including roasted pork, fried tofu, charbroiled chicken and spicy lemongrass shrimp — all of which are served on a buttered baguette dressed with cilantro, cucumbers, jalapenos, pickled carrots and a dash or two of soy sauce.
Taj India has served its traditional Indian cuisine in Birmingham since 1986. (Credit: Taj India)
Taj India
Alabama’s oldest Indian restaurant, Taj India has served Birmingham since 1986, and two years ago, the restaurant moved into its new location in the former Bogue’s Restaurant space on Clairmont Avenue. The menu features such traditional Indian dishes as tandoori chicken, lamb tikka masala and vegetable Badami, as well as a generous lunch buffet.
Spring practice is starting to feel less and less significant in college football.
Many players don’t participate, and the traditional spring game is starting to go away for most programs. Auburn is no different, as this year’s A-Day was an open practice rather than a game, and starters such as Keldric Faulk, Connor Lew, Xavier Chaplin and others all didn’t participate.
Hugh Freeze has gone as far as suggesting that college football should eliminate spring ball, instead opting for an NFL-like OTA format in June.
Regardless, Auburn recently finished practicing for the spring, and while a number of players sat out, the practices were an opportunity for other players to shine, especially those who are new to the program.
Here’s what we learned about Auburn during the spring, based on what we could observe at practice.
The wide receiver core can be elite
Auburn has been known for producing NFL talent at multiple positions over the years. Running back and defensive line are the first ones that come to mind, but wide receiver historically hasn’t been one.
The program has only ever had two 1,000-yard receivers, and neither of those seasons were this century. However, there are plenty of candidates on the current team to become the third.
Auburn added to an already promising group by signing Eric Singleton Jr. and Horatio Fields out of the transfer portal. Both players had big seasons in the ACC in 2024, and Singleton was ranked as the top receiver in the portal, according to On3 and 247Sports.
Fields didn’t arrive with as much hype, but Freeze was complimentary of him during spring ball, saying they “hit a home run” by getting him out of the portal. His size stands out the most, measuring 6-foot-2 and 201 pounds playing on the opposite side of Cam Coleman.
“I love long receivers. Always have,” Freeze said during the second week of spring practice. “I think now we’ve got some of those that fit that mold. And Horatio certainly does. He’s stood out.”
He seemed physically mature for a freshman and made a number of big catches in one-on-one coverage throughout the practices that media could watch.
The new additions add to a young core that includes former blue-chip recruits like Coleman, Malcolm Simmons, Perry Thompson and Bryce Cain.
The young defensive backs seem ready
Auburn’s defense in 2024 was young, but solid. A lot of those talented freshmen were concentrated in the secondary, with players like Kaleb Harris, Jay Crawford and Sylvester Smith all having big seasons.
Those three returned, and the newest batch of freshmen already seemed to make an impact during spring ball.
One name that kept popping up whenever players or coaches were asked about young standouts on defense was AnQuon Fegans. The true freshman out of in-state powerhouse Thompson High School was a four-star prospect and flashed great ball skills.
He played on both sides of the ball at Thompson, and he seemed to grab an interception during just about every practice media was able to view this spring.
Fegans and fellow freshman Eric Winters seemed to create roles for themselves during spring practice, and nothing was more evident of that than older safeties CJ Johnson and Terrance Love both entering the transfer portal after A-Day.
At corner, Blake Woodby is another player to keep an eye on when fall camp rolls around. It will be hard for any freshmen to getting starting snaps at corner with Crawford, Kayin Lee, Raion Strader and Champ Anthony fighting for those spots, but Woodby flashed solid coverage skills against Auburn’s talented receivers.
The front seven might not be complete
Auburn likely won’t bring in as many players during the spring portal window as it did in the fall, but the two position groups to watch are defensive line and linebacker.
When asked after A-Day where Auburn would look in the portal, Freeze mentioned the defensive line first and said they could “probably” use an experienced linebacker to supplement the young core.
The Tigers used a deep rotation on the interior defensive line last season, at times rotating up to six different players. At the moment, Auburn barely has the numbers to do that again, and the group is much younger, with four true freshmen coming in.
The staff seems to be high on young players like Jourdin Crawford and Malik Autry, but there’s no substitute for experience and depth up front in the Southeastern Conference.
At linebacker, Auburn doesn’t have much proven production. Demarcus Riddick is the most notable returner, but the group lost four seniors from last season.
Robert Woodyard Jr. was the most consistent first team linebacker during spring ball, but 2025 would be his first season as a starter. After Woodyard and Riddick, there’s even more inexperience. Auburn brought in LSU transfer Xavier Atkins during the winter, but he didn’t see the field much during his one season in Baton Rouge.
True freshmen Elijah Melendez and Bryce Deas both showed some flashes during the spring, but either middle linebacker spot is a lot to handle for a freshman right away.
The staff trusts Jackson Arnold
The quarterback of any team naturally gets more attention than anyone else, but that’s especially true at Auburn this upcoming season.
Arnold will likely be the starter to replace Payton Thorne after Thorne’s two seasons on the Plains could best be described as inconsistent. Arnold himself had an up and down season at Oklahoma last year, but Freeze has been adamant throughout the spring that the former five-star recruit just needed a reset.
“There’s a reason he was Gatorade Player of the Year coming out of high school,” Freeze said after the first day of spring practice. “I think he needed a (restart) to regain some confidence. I think he’s doing that at a fast, fast pace.”
The other piece of evidence that shows the staff’s confidence in him is how the reps were distributed during spring practice.
Arnold and true freshman Deuce Knight were the only two scholarship quarterbacks participating, but the first team reps always belonged to Arnold. That’s to be expected when there’s a freshman involved, but it shows where the competition stands.
Stanford transfer Ashton Daniels will arrive on campus in the summer, but missing spring puts him well behind Arnold in any kind of competition for the starting job once the season starts.
The kicking game is in a better place
Kicking was a disaster at times for Auburn last season. The team went a combined 12-for-22 on field goals, with Towns McGough, Alex McPherson and Ian Vachon all attempting at least one.
McGough began the season as the starter with McPherson forced to miss 11 out of 12 games with a gastrointestinal illness, but McGough never found a rhythm. He finished the year 5-for-12 on field goals, eventually getting benched for Birmingham Southern transfer Ian Vachon.
McGough also returns and Auburn added Southern Miss transfer Connor Gibbs, who made 10 of his 13 field goal attempts last season. Vachon entered the transfer portal following spring practice, narrowing the competition, but there are still multiple capable legs in the room.
If McPherson is back and at 100%, that could be a quick fix to last year’s problems. If he’s not, adding someone like Gibbs prevents Auburn from having to rely on a true freshman if the starter goes down.
While McGough has shown that he has plenty of leg strength, banking on a true freshman to kick in pressure situations right away was a big ask last season. That’s something Auburn will avoid in 2025.
The Birmingham Water Works is gonna make you pay more. Always.
Which is not a news flash. The water works wanting more is as sure a thing as death or tax breaks for people who already have too much money. What I should have said is…
The water works is gonna make you pay even more. And it’s gonna care even less about what you have to say about it.
Ponder this:
If your water bill was $100 a month in 2015 (you probably ought to bathe more, but that’s another issue) you’d pay about $144 for the same water today.
But last week – props to my AL.com colleague Joseph Bryant for keeping tabs – the water board cut your ability to complain about it, or anything else, by a third.
Water up 44%. Check. Ability to complain down 33%. Check.
They don’t want to hear you. So they cut public comment time in their monthly meetings from three measly minutes to two even measlier minutes.
Maybe you want to ask why they pay lawyers 9% more this year than last. You’ll get a third less time than you did last month.
Maybe you want to question why the board spent 25% more on consultants this year. You get two minutes for your two cents on their $6 million.
Maybe you just want to reminisce about the history of indictments, infighting, overspending, lavish travel, mismanagement and general buffoonery. You get two minutes. But only if you are lucky.
Because now, to talk at all, you have to wait like a vulture – or a water works lawyer – for the meeting agenda to be made public. Then the countdown begins. You have 24 hours from the moment the agenda drops to get on the list. Like it’s a Taylor Swift concert or something.
It’s enough to make you want to get on the list. If only to ask why they keep spending your money to figure out why you don’t like them.
That’s something I could actually explain in two minutes. It’s worth remembering.
This board was so concerned after years of playing the Washington Generals’ role in J.D. Power customer satisfaction surveys that it paid Southeast Research $69,000 last year – you can buy a six bedroom home on Oporto-Madrid Boulevard for that – to do its own survey. Then it paid $37,500 to join J.D. Power, hoping to skew the results.
And still, after flushing six figures to figure out why people think they are awful, they again ranked last in customer service in J.D. Power’s survey of comparable utilities.
And then – oh my god – they raised rates by 4.9% this year, the biggest increase in more than a decade. And then – look out, Elizabeth, I’m coming – they cut public comment time.
The board, in a statement, said speakers with “an agenda” had misused the comment time. But then, anyone with something to say has an agenda.
I’ll be honest with you. I get tired of writing about irony and hypocrisy and stupidity in government at all levels. It is draining.
Maybe I’ll just let Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson say it.
“So, who the hell do they think they are to change the policy where the public, who pays their bills, can’t complain?” she said.
Damn. Maybe not everybody needs three minutes to get to the point after all.
John Archibald is a two-time Pulitzer winner at AL.com.
Robbie Deason last talked to his 33-year-old son the day before the presidential election, when his son called from a phone at a south Alabama prison. Before the ballots had been cast, his son was dead.
And he still doesn’t know why. Or how. Or even exactly when.
“She notified me about his death like she was telling me to pick up my dry cleaners,” said Deason, recalling his conversation with a captain from the prison. “I had 900 questions, and she couldn’t answer none of them.”
Deason’s son Nolan had served 11 months when he was found dead in the showers at Fountain Correctional Facility on Nov. 4, 2024. He would have been released just a month later.
Deason said in the months that have passed since his son’s death, he’s gotten no answers from prison officials, no returned phone calls from the warden. A captain at the prison called him to make the death notification.
“They have so many people die per year in the prisons,” Deason told AL.com. “That they don’t have somebody that, you know, would have some decency… this lady never said, ‘I’m sorry.’ She just said that, made sure I was who I was and said, ‘I just am notifying you your son died last night.’”
“And I’m like, ‘What? What happened?’ You know, all these questions, and just nothing.”
Deason is one of nearly 300 families who had a loved one die in Alabama’s lockups last year. The prison system is currently facing several lawsuits, including a federal investigation into prison conditions and the rampant physical and sexual violence that happens inside.
“Grieving and losing your son you love, had for 33 years, is bad enough. But then this is just gas on the fire, man. You know, it’s just… It’s so much more added stress and worry and not knowing.”
“It just seems so inhuman,” said Deason. “You know, it’s my son… just have a little compassion.”
But with a January Executive Order from President Donald Trump — who was officially declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election hours after Nolan Deason was found dead in the shower — the Department of Justice lawsuit might not survive. No one has said if the feds will still use the courts to demand changes to an Alabama system they have argued is both overcrowded and understaffed to the point of being unconstitutionally cruel and dangerous.
No one in the Justice Department nor the Alabama Attorney General’s Office responded to requests for comment about how the case would be affected.
But Charlotte Morrison, senior attorney at the Equal Justice Initiative, said change is past due.
Alabama’s prison crisis is unique because the crisis encompasses the entire system and it’s been happening for a long time, she explained. “I think that we need the staff and the incarcerated people need to know that help is coming… that help is here, that we hear the crisis and that we’re active on the ground.”
The Equal Justice Initiative is a nonprofit legal organization that provides representation to people who have been “illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons,” according to the group. The organization, led by Bryan Stevenson, also handles death penalty cases and prison lawsuits, and offers re-entry services to formerly incarcerated people.
“We don’t care about people. If you are poor, we don’t have to care. That’s why the Department of Justice comes, has to play a role here,” said Morrison.
“We have people going into prison without having an addiction, coming out traumatized, raped, and addicted. We are not making anyone safer by ignoring it and saying, ‘well, you know, your fault.’”
The lawsuit
In December 2020, the federal government under Trump sued Alabama over its prison conditions. In its complaint, signed by then-U.S. Attorney General William Barr, the Department of Justice argued that the state fails to prevent prisoner-on-prisoner violence and sexual abuse, fails to protect prisoners from excessive force, and fails to provide safe prison conditions.
The lawsuit was filed after the federal government did multiple years-long investigations and released two scathing public reports. The investigations found that “prisoners housed in Alabama’s prisons for men are at serious risk of death, physical violence, and sexual abuse” and live in “unsafe and unsanitary conditions.”
The government negotiated with the state before filing the suit but found that Alabama wouldn’t fix the problems. The government wrote in the lawsuit “that constitutional compliance cannot be secured by voluntary means.”
And that’s what is unusual, said Morrison.
“The only thing they’re seeking is constitutionally run prisons, and that’s so unusual because you have a plaintiff that is seeking the same thing that defendants say they want, which is safe prisons. Safe prisons for their staff, safe prisons for incarcerated people,” she said during a conversation at EJI’s Montgomery office.
Morrison said in prison lawsuits, progress often comes in the form of a consent decree or a settlement that’s overseen by a judge.
“Reform can happen very, very quickly under the consent decree that’s being monitored by the judge,” Morrison said.
That’s what happened at Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women.
The nonprofit investigated widespread claims of sexual abuse at Tutwiler, and in 2012 filed a complaint with the Justice Department. The next year, the federal government launched their own investigation. The feds learned that Tutwiler had “a history of unabated staff-on-prisoner sexual abuse and harassment,” and spelled out changes the state could make to avoid a lawsuit.
In 2015, after a year of public scrutiny, the state and the DOJ reached an agreement on reforms to be monitored by the judge. And late last year, both parties asked the court to end most of those provisions. Reports from court-appointed monitors show the prison has complied with almost all of the requirements at Tutwiler over the last six years.
But the men’s prisons, according to the 2020 lawsuit, “remain extremely overcrowded, prisoner-on-prisoner homicides have increased, other forms of prisoner-on-prisoner violence including sexual abuse remains unabated, the physical facilities remain inadequate, use of excessive force by security staff is common, and staffing rates remain critically and dangerously low.”
A response from the state’s lawyers in court records said the lawsuit contained “vague allegations” and that its descriptions of violence inside the prisons are “isolated examples.”
What happens now?
That lawsuit continued into Joe Biden’s administration, followed by years of back-and-forth between the state and the feds over what should be considered in evidence, who should be deposed and more. Last year, a judge said the case should be ready for trial in April 2026.
Yet in January, Trump issued a freeze on Department of Justice civil rights cases.
The letter, sent on U.S. Department of Justice letterhead and from the chief of staff to the attorney general, had the subject line “Litigation freeze.”
The letter ordered that attorneys in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division not file “any new complaints, motions to intervene, agreed-upon remands, amicus briefs, or statements of interest.”
Inmates are shown here at an Alabama prison in 2022. (Photo via Alabama Department of Corrections)Contributed
In a separate memo, released the same day, the chief of staff to the attorney general wrote that the Trump administration didn’t want attorneys to make any new settlements or consent decrees.
Neither representatives from the federal government, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, nor the Alabama Attorney General’s Office responded to requests for comment from AL.com as to how the order affects the litigation.
But Gov. Kay Ivey’s communications director said in an email, “The DOJ litigation against the state of Alabama remains pending as of today. In the meantime, the state and ADOC are fully committed to ensuring constitutional conditions in our prisons, and nothing will change that going forward.”
A crisis behind bars
Kerry Presnell Sr. knows nothing can bring back his son. But, he told AL.com over the phone, he wants everyone responsible for his son’s death held accountable.
Kerry Presnell Jr., was killed at Elmore Correctional Facility in November. He had been in and out of prison for years, the elder Presnell said. This last stint was for a parole violation, after Presnell Jr. had been caught with drugs.
Things were going well though, Presnell Sr. said. His son would have been up for parole this month. And had he been alive, Presnell Sr. thought he would have been released.
But, on Nov. 14, 2024, Presnell Sr. said, a captain at Elmore called to say his son had been stabbed. But then, when called back, the captain said the younger Presnell had overdosed. When Presnell Sr. grilled the officer about what exactly happened, he said, the captain hung up.
About 20 phone calls and days later, Presnell Sr. said, the warden called to say several incidents had happened: Presnell Jr. had been beaten by a group of inmates that day and went to the infirmary. He declined to stay in the infirmary and was sent back down to his dorm. At some point that night, he got up to go to the bathroom and collapsed. After officers helped him up, he went into the bathroom, where he died.
Presnell Sr. said his son’s body was sent for an autopsy at the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. But he hasn’t yet received the results, and officials at the prison still say the killing is under investigation. He said the warden told him that his son died from brain and spinal cord damage from being beaten with a mop handle.
So far, there have been no federal measures taken in the prisons to stop what family members like Presnell Sr. describe as horrific conditions.
“I believe with all my heart if they would have taken him to the free world hospital, he would be alive today,” Presnell Sr. told AL.com. He doesn’t believe his son would have rejected medical care, and he also doesn’t think prison medical staff should have been allowed to send someone in such a poor medical state back to their dorm.
And he isn’t the only one waiting for answers.
Prison data, compiled by AL.com, shows from October 2023 through September 2024 — the 2024 fiscal year — there were 292 death investigations opened inside Alabama prisons.
During the same period, there were 738 sexual abuse investigations. Some of those incidents involved staff, but the majority were inmate-on-inmate incidents. More than 30 of those sexual abuse incidents involved group attacks, with 4 or more people.
“This is a prison. This is not happening in some dark alley or in someone’s private home,” Morrison added.
Such abuse is often used as punishment for drug debts, or happens while inmates are using drugs. In 2024, the prison system documented over 1,300 cases of controlled substances inside lockups.
In their reports, federal investigators said victims of a sexual assault in prison get blamed for what happened to them. They get thrown in segregation or are punished for drug use that happened prior to the assault.
“It is the height of irresponsibility. It is just a grotesque culture to tolerate that and have no response whatsoever,” Morrison said. “It’s contributing to this culture of violence in the prisons to have that kind of response.”
And the prisons are deadly. Researchers at EJI “found that people are murdered in Alabama’s prisons at a rate 513% higher than Alabamians who are not incarcerated.”
The same data showed the fatal overdose rate in the state’s prisons was 1,629% higher than the rate for Alabamians who weren’t imprisoned. The suicide rate for Alabama inmates was 135% higher.
Morrison said those figures– the homicide rate, the mortality rate, and the sexual abuse rate– show the prisons are in a security crisis.
A $1 billion prison
Construction continues on a mega-prison for men in Elmore County. That prison is slated to have 4,000 beds, along with facilities for medical care, mental health care, and educational opportunities.
And it’s going to cost more than $1 billion, even though it will do nearly nothing to address overcrowding.
The state legislature also approved a second mega-prison in Escambia County. Construction hasn’t started on that site, as the state is still looking for a way to pay for it.
The mega-prisons won’t add beds in a jam-packed system, as older prisons are set to close when they open.
But facilities have been a focus of the state’s prison crisis for years.
“The violations are severe, systemic, and exacerbated by serious deficiencies… and a high level of violence that is too common, cruel, of an unusual nature, and pervasive,” said the government.
In its lawsuit, the federal government said the state doesn’t have a “preventative maintenance plan” for the men’s prisons, that each of the prisons have “serious plumbing, HVAC, and electrical issues,” and none of the prisons had, at the time, a functional fire alarm system.
The buildings “do not provide adequate humane conditions.” There are broken locks and cameras that don’t work, they wrote. They called the conditions “decrepit,” unsanitary and unsafe.
The feds said they saw spiders and bugs falling from ceilings, rats in kitchens, cockroaches running rampant and more. There were showers covered in mold, toilets backed up, floors covered in sewage.
And while those examples show what the government called unconstitutional conditions, there are safety issues, too. The 2019 investigation said that prisoners often had to wait for an extended amount of time at a gate at Bibb, “often bleeding profusely, while staff searched for a key to open the gate” that led to the infirmary.
Disturbing examples from each facility were listed in the lawsuit, encompassing 15 pages. There was discolored water at Bullock, an outbreak of scabies at Limestone, warped doors at Staton, and temperature issues so severe at Donaldson that one prisoner baked to death in his cell in 2020 with a body temperature of 109 degrees.
In many prisons, inmates have to go days without showers. At St. Clair, one inmate had to use his boxers to clean himself for more than a week because there was no toilet paper.
At Ventress, buzzards infested the water tank to feed on drowned rats and birds that were floating in the tank.
The investigation offered solutions, but said Alabama “has not made this easy fix” despite acknowledging the “decrepit conditions” for years.
And the feds said the expensive, new buildings that are in the works won’t solve Alabama’s problem with understaffing, violence, corruption, drug abuse, sexual attacks and “non-existent investigations.”
“And new facilities,” said federal investigators, “would quickly fall into a state of disrepair if prisoners are unsupervised and largely left to their own devices, as is currently the case.”
Families want answers
Presnell doesn’t want money for his son’s death. But he does want answers, and he wants accountability for the people who beat his son, the staff who didn’t treat his medical needs, and the officers who didn’t intervene in the beating.
“They know they was wrong for not taking him (to the hospital) and not keeping him safe in there,” Presnell Sr. said. “I feel they knew they screwed up and let my son die.”
“I believe with all my heart he would be out already, he’d be here today, if they only took him to the hospital. If only they got to him before that man was beating and beating and beating him with a stick.”
Despite the death toll at ADOC, the cause and manner of death is often unknown for many inmates. It’s not just the stories that are incomplete: Some dead inmates have been returned from autopsies with missing organs, without a heart or a brain, causing all sorts of distress for families.
In 2024, the University of Alabama at Birmingham ended its agreement with the prison system to provide autopsies. The department had a longstanding deal with UAB for post-mortem examinations, but it ended after families began speaking out and suing the institution, claiming their loved ones’ bodies were coming back from autopsies missing organs.
Some of those families were able to retrieve those organs by picking them up in specimen bags from UAB. Others have never been found.
A lawyer for UAB said at a recent court hearing that under the agreement between UAB and the state, UAB was allowed to keep organs for testing purposes. He didn’t clarify what type of testing.
State law demands inmates who have a suspicious death, or one from unnatural cases, must be autopsied, and the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences is handling those now. Deaths that don’t result in an autopsy get a toxicology screening before the body is released to the family.
“Although the department previously contracted with UAB hospital to conduct autopsies on suspected overdose or natural deaths; UAB terminated its long-standing agreement … Since that time, the department has made numerous inquiries but has been unable to find another vendor to provide autopsies for ADOC inmates who died of natural causes or suspected overdoses,” a prison spokesperson said in March.
Families of inmates who die behind bars have tried to get the attention of lawmakers, federal investigators and anyone who they think could help so they can find out what happened to their loved one.
A new report from the ACLU of Alabama showed that 105 prison deaths in 2024 were listed as being from an unknown cause or were under investigation. The report cited a lack of transparency in death data, and the organization called for the prison system to require autopsies for all who die in custody and update its definitions of death.
The report showed that in the second half of 2024, ADOC categorized 22 deaths as “Autopsy Not Authorized.”
Drugs landed the younger Presnell in prison, his father said. But he thinks dying because of his addiction was too far.
“I just want to know why they didn’t do anything,” he said. “I want them to know how I feel about them letting my son die.”
What’s next?
Like the families of other inmates who died in Alabama prisons, the Deasons and the Presnells are still waiting for answers.
Nolan Deason was a good man, his father said, and a good son. But the system failed him.
The elder Deason said there weren’t enough beds in drug treatment centers, which maybe could have helped his son avoid prison. And when Nolan Deason went to prison, the corrections system failed to keep him safe.
“There was weeks that went by I had, I didn’t know anything…It makes you just want to scream. You get so mad. I mean, it wouldn’t do any good,” he said. “I felt like going and seeing if the governor would see me. It’s just like, somebody talk to me.”
Morrison with EJI said she’s still holding out hope things can improve, because the current system abides far too much death with little consequence, that too often people in Alabama commit some relatively small or nonviolent crime and still pay with their lives.
“You’re just saying we can deal out death sentences to families anytime as a punishment,” Morrison said. “That is the kind of indifference that allows these systems to become this corrupt.”
Alabama’s temperatures are expected to climb over the next few days, and a warm Easter weekend is ahead.
The National Weather Service expects temperatures to climb well into the 80s during the next few days, and some spots could get close to 90 degrees.
No severe weather is expected, and no rain, either, until possibly later in the day on Easter Sunday, when the next weather system approaches the state.
High temperatures today are expected to range from the upper 70s to low 80s statewide, according to weather service forecasts (today’s forecast is at the top of this post).
Friday is expected to be a few degrees warmer, with highs expected to range from the low to mid-80s statewide.
Here is the forecast for Friday:
The forecast for Friday is above. It will be a few degrees warmer than today.NWS
The warmest day of the week could come on Saturday.
The weather service is forecasting high temperatures to be a few degrees warmer, with mid-80s possible statewide.
Here is the forecast for Saturday:
Mid-80s are expected for much of the state for high temperatures on Saturday.NWS
Easter Sunday is also expected to be warm but may not be as warm as Saturday. On Sunday highs will be in the low to mid-80s.
Here’s the outlook for Sunday:
Here are Sunday’s expected high temperatures.NWS
Monday will bring a return of some rain and more cloudy conditions, and temperatures will cool off a little.
Highs on Monday will fall back into the 70s in north Alabama and stay in the 80s in south Alabama.
Here’s the forecast for Monday:
It will be slightly cooler on Monday in parts of Alabama.NWS
Will there be any cold snaps in the next few weeks? It is not looking likely.
The longer-range temperature outlooks from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center point to above-average temperatures for Alabama through the end of the month.
Here’s the eight- to 14-day outlook, which includes a high probability (60-70 percent) of above-average temperatures for all of Alabama:
There is a 60-70 percent probability that Alabama will have above-average temperatures from April 24-30.Climate Prediction Center
Tennessee didn’t want to pay Nico Iamaleava for what the quarterback was worth.
Despite most everything you’ve heard or read, it was an enormous mistake by the Volunteers to let Iamaleava walk. He’s a good quarterback with playoff experience, a returning starter in the SEC who knew the Vols’ system and a player who teammates respected. Iamaleava helped put Tennessee into the playoffs last season and take down one rival after another. What more could Tennessee possibly ask for out of an underclassman?
And yet the Vols refused to pony up.
Why?
Pride, or was it something else?
General managers around college football should ask themselves a simple question to know whether or not Tennessee should have answered Iamaleava’s contract demands. Is Iamaleava better than Arch Manning at Texas? Based on everything we’ve seen so far, the answer is yes. But Tennessee would have wired Manning $6 million in a second if he wanted to transfer, according to inbox.
I enjoyed my emails last week from Tennessee fans. Waving so long to Iamaleava apparently wasn’t about the money after all. Here’s an example of my inbox this week after my first column on Tennessee’s springtime gaffe.
From proud Volunteer Sarah B. …
The University of Tennessee could have easily found the money to pay Nico Iamaleava, but it chose to not to be blackmailed by a 20-year-old mediocre quarterback. I have read about this extensively over the last couple of days and your opinion is the only one I’ve seen that portrays the university’s actions in a negative light. Once again, the real UT is leading the charge on the insanity that has become college football and other programs are going to thank them for it.
Never have I been more proud of my university and football program. Our record may suffer this fall, but the Vol Nation stands in solidarity that this was the right decision to make. It was a matter of principle, not being “too poor.”
Great email, but groupthink is a funny thing. If enough people convince themselves that a bad decision is for the best, then pretty soon things like crippling Canada’s economy for not wanting to be a U.S. state is genius-level statecraft.
But let’s not forget that Tennessee is the same fanbase that once lost its collective mind and fired an athletics director over wanting to hire Mike Leach as a football coach.
Tennessee convinced themselves it was making a good decision, hired Phillip Fulmer and then was stuck with no better option for head football coach than Jeremy Pruitt.
Y’all, I’m sensing a pattern.
And that’s nothing against Pruitt, of course. Pruitt was ahead of his time when it came to building a roster. No doubt the Sand Mountain Magician would have found some money in a hat to pay the best returning quarterback in the SEC not at Vanderbilt.
Diego Pavia wanted a raise, by the way, and the Commodores were happy to do it. But Tennessee? Too proud.
Tennessee and its advocates like Paul Finebaum want everyone to believe that the Volunteers are taking some kind of noble stand for its locker room and all of college football, but that’s nonsense. Don’t listen to talking heads trying to curry favor, and especially the ones working for the SEC Network. Tennessee is not helping the future of college football by disrespecting Iamaleava. The guys in the locker room know the deal. Get what you can when you can. The logo on the front of the jersey doesn’t matter as much as the name on the back when millions of dollars are in the balance.
That’s not greed. That’s just smart business and human nature.
Now Tennessee spent all that money on its offense and it doesn’t have a decent quarterback to run it. If we’re being completely honest, then every offensive player on Tennessee’s two-deep should consider transferring during the current portal window. Why play for a team that doesn’t back their quarterback?
If Tennessee wants to win games in the SEC, then they need to pay a premium for the best players.
We watched two SEC contenders go cheap before the 2024 season. It cost them both victories and, for one contender, maybe even a spot in the College Football Playoff.
In the case of Auburn, coach Hugh Freeze thought $1 million was too much for a quarterback out of the transfer portal. He went with Payton Thorne, and Thorne was worth five wins. It was a mistake, but Freeze learned his lesson. He dropped the bag for Jackson Arnold at Oklahoma, who wasn’t spectacular last season but did enough to thump Alabama on the forehead.
Then there was Ole Miss. The Rebs were last year’s Tennessee. Too proud to pay up.
Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin and his well-heeled boosters didn’t want to negotiate a new contract with running back Quinshon Judkins. They labeled Judkins greedy and said they’d be better off without the best returning running back in the SEC.
They were wrong.
The three highest paid quarterbacks in the SEC last season, according to sources familiar with roster management in the league, were Iamaleava, Jaxson Dart at Ole Miss and Carson Beck at Georgia. Ole Miss decided to go cheap at running back and it cost them.
Judkins went to Ohio State and won the Buckeyes a national championship. Ole Miss was left crying about strength of schedule after losing to Kentucky, LSU and Florida. With Judkins, Ole Miss likely would have won the SEC.
Judkins wanted to be paid what he was worth. How is his situation any different than Iamaleava? No one is questioning Iamaleava’s work ethic. No one denies that Iamaleava is a great teammate.
I’m not saying Tennessee is racist for refusing to pay Iamaleava what he wanted, but there’s a reason all the football coaches in the SEC are white. It’s because the big boosters are more willing to pay market value for white coaches.
Is it now the same with high-end players, too?
Because there’s no doubt Tennessee’s quarterback would be making $4 million-plus for the Vols this season if he were a Manning.
BE HEARD
Got a question for Joe? Want to get something off your chest? Send Joe an email about what’s on your mind. Let your voice be heard. Ask him anything.
It’s shaping up to be the closest thing Alabama’s seen to a Republican-led town hall lately — only, there won’t be one.
U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, will speak at a private, closed-door luncheon hosted by the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, but the event is expected to spark public demonstrations.
While Moore keeps things behind closed doors, nearly 90 people are expected to gather outside for what the Baldwin County Democratic Party is calling a “peaceful” protest. In return, the Baldwin County Republican Party has organized a dueling “America First” rally.
In the heart of Foley, officials anticipate a politically charged afternoon. And despite tensions, local officials are urging calm.
“We expect all citizens to be respectful in their activities of expressing their rights under the law,” said Foley Mayor Ralph Hellmich.
Dueling rallies
The dueling events come as public town halls have largely vanished from Republican calendars across the country, following a wave of heated and even chaotic moments.
Just this week, GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley was met with jeers in Iowa. And in Georgia on Tuesday, a town hall with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene ended with several arrests and two people being stunned by a Taser.
A protester is removed as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., speaks during a town-hall style meeting, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Acworth, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)AP
In Baldwin County, a Republican stronghold experiencing rapid growth, Democratic supporters are planning to voice their opposition to the Trump Administration and the lack of congressional support.
“We want him to stand up for our rights as Americans,” said Robyn Monaghan, chair of the Baldwin County Democratic Party who organized the rally.
Monaghan said the party will pass around a microphone to allow people to hear stories about how the Trump agenda’s policies have affected them and “destroyed quality of life for people you know.”
She said she was surprised to learn that the Baldwin County GOP was participating in a counter event at the same time and at the same location.
“I was not aware of that,” Monaghan said after informed about the Republican rally, adding that she was not informed about the GOP rally while “working closely with the Foley Police Department” over planning.
“We’re making sure it’s lawful, peaceful, and respectful,” Monaghan said.
Kathy Morelock, chair of the Baldwin County Republican Party, said their “America First” rally is intended to show support of Moore’s commitment to advance Trump’s agenda.
Moore, a member of the conservative U.S. House Freedom Caucus, boasts a 99% rating with the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a testament to his conservative credentials.
“Like most Americans, we are in favor of securing our border, cutting wasteful spending, ferreting out and eliminating fraud and abuse, reducing taxes, protecting women’s sports, and a host of other priorities that put our citizens, our children and our country first,” Morelock said.
Keeping peace
The rallies are expected to begin between 10 to 11 a.m. and last until 1:30 p.m.
David Wilson, executive director of public safety with the City of Foley, said police will be available to ensure the activities outside the Civic Center are peaceful.
“Anytime you have a political official come to an event, you always stand the chance of somebody making some type of protest,” Wilson said. “On this particular event, we do expect some protesters and have talked with and coordinated with these organizations so that everything stays orderly.”
Foley Police Chief Thurston Bullock said there are no plans to keep the two groups separated from each other in two different areas.
“We ask each side to be respectful of each other’s views and demonstrate peacefully,” Bullock said. “Disorder of any type will not be tolerated in order to keep this event safe for all involved.”
Bullock said that Foley City Hall, which is next to the Civic Center, will remain open and that “citizens will be coming and going to conduct business, and that cannot be interrupted in the process of demonstrating.”
Parking is also limited on and around the vicinity.
That was the case recently when the Ole Miss coach joined Theo Von’s podcast and LSU coach Brian Kelly’s infamous recruiting video became a topic.
“I thought this was for a strip club to be honest with you,” Von joked.
“Do you realize you are kinda grinding on the dude?” Kiffin said.
Kiffin, who was also the offensive coordinator at Alabama under Nick Saban, explained there is no bigger change in coaching then going from Notre Dame in South Bend to LSU in Baton Rouge.
Still, he had plenty of fun at Kelly’s expense.
“I re-tweeted that,” Kiffin explained. “I think I wrote something like, ‘Do you actually know they are filming you? Did you put this out on purpose? You know they are going to film you when you do this?’
“It’s not like its his first one. He did it the year before. You realize like you’re kind of grinding on the dude?”
Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.
Like puzzles and games? AL.com has overhauled the Puzzles & Games section we make available to our readers at al.com/puzzles/.
We now feature six crowd-pleasing brainteasers. Three are free – all readers can enjoy these seven days a week.
Crossword. Still our most popular puzzle by a fair margin.
Sudoku. We’ve got three levels — Easy, Medium and Hard.
Word Flower. Test your knowledge of words and their spellings.
Three of the new puzzles are exclusively for digital subscribers:
Mini-crosswords: This is a quick brain-waker.
Word Search: A classic hidden-words grid.
WordroW: A variation on the Wordle phenom.
The games are easy to play on your computer, smartphone or tablet, and you can invite a friend to play using the little head and shoulders icon on the top bar of any puzzle.
And if you’re as good at puzzles as we think you might be, there’s an easy way to share your results with friends via social media.
There’s a two-week archive for all games, so you can catch-up if you miss a day. Choose “All Games” under the little menu in the upper-left corner of any puzzle.
If you already like and play our old puzzles and games, they haven’t gone away. You’ll see links to all of them at the bottom of the new puzzles page. All those games remain free to everyone to play.
