Montavius Banks, 31, was killed on June 6 at Limestone Correctional Facility in Harvest, Alabama. He is at least the fifth person murdered at Limestone in the past 12 months.
Multiple sources reported to EJI that Mr. Banks was stabbed in a housing dormitory at the prison. Witnesses said men in the unit beat on windows and doors for an extended period of time trying to get emergency medical attention for Mr. Banks. But officers did not enter the dorm until approximately one hour later, when they came for count and found Mr. Banks bleeding severely.
The absence of officers on the yard also reportedly led to a delay in getting Mr. Banks to the prison infirmary as he continued to bleed profusely. The Alabama Department of Corrections stated that Mr. Banks succumbed to his injuries after he was transported to a local hospital.
Limestone Correctional Facility is Alabama’s largest prison. For 12 years starting in 2009, not a single incarcerated person was killed at Limestone, and the prison reported one homicide each year between 2021 and 2023. But starting in 2024, killings at Limestone escalated dramatically, and that trend is continuing.
Five people, including Mr. Banks, have been killed at the prison in the past 12 months alone.
Brelin McAlpine was stabbed to death in a Limestone dormitory on June 27, 2024. On September 2, Elvin Cook was killed in a cell inside Limestone’s restricted housing unit. Carl Powell was killed on October 26, less than three days after arriving at the prison. On February 6, 2025, Michael Jones died of blunt force injuries he suffered in a beating at Limestone on January 22.
In recent years, families of people incarcerated at the prison as well as facility staff and the U.S. Department of Justice have spoken out about the worsening crisis at Limestone.
A correctional supervisor who was subsequently dismissed for speaking to the media warned in 2022 that “Limestone is in a dire need of assistance at this point, and no one is willing to give us assistance in the higher levels of our department. It is almost like they want us to get hurt or fail.”
The Justice Department also said in a statement that the North Alabama prison “fails to provide constitutionally adequate conditions and that prisoners experience serious harm, including deadly harm.”
Evidence that the crisis at Limestone is driven by corruption, misconduct, and leadership failures is also mounting.
Limestone’s last head warden, Chadwick Crabtree, was arrested and charged with the possession and manufacturing of a controlled substance last year. His two immediate predecessors, Dewayne Estes and Deborah Toney, had been forced to retire due to misconduct.
In 2024, two officers at the prison were criminally charged with assault for beating an elderly incarcerated man. Other Limestone officers have been criminally charged with bribery, corruption, and contraband. John Paul Ketteman pleaded guilty in March 2025 to taking more than $10,000 in bribes from another correctional officer to smuggle contraband into the prison.
Alabama is now in its seventh year since the Justice Department notified the governor and the Alabama Department of Corrections that conditions within the state’s prisons violate the Constitution. Since that time, nearly 90 men have been murdered—an average of more than one person killed each month—and the rate of homicides remains as high now as it was in 2019.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit against ADOC, initiated after efforts to obtain the state’s voluntary compliance to address its prison crisis failed, remains ongoing.