EJI has received numerous reports that another person incarcerated at St. Clair Correctional Facility has been found dead. Charles Braggs, a 28-year-old Black man serving a 20 year sentence for robbery convictions that occurred when he was 17, was reportedly found dead in his segregation cell on July 27.
Mr. Braggs was being held in the prison’s segregation unit, where complaints about intolerably high temperatures and unsanitary conditions have escalated in recent weeks. Several men incarcerated at St. Clair have reported that they are being denied showers and that reduced staff and faulty locks make the segregation unit especially dangerous. Reports indicate that Mr. Braggs had been held in segregation for more than a year.
Mr. Braggs reportedly was found dead in his cell by segregation supervisor Sergeant Derrick Dent, who witnesses say was involved in an altercation with Mr. Braggs in the segregation unit three days before Mr. Braggs was found dead in his cell. Witnesses reported that Dent sprayed Mr. Braggs with chemical spray during a use of force incident the week before his death.
EJI has received numerous reports about Dent’s use of excessive force. Last year, the Alabama Department of Corrections reprimanded Dent after video footage surfaced of him beating an incarcerated man in the segregation unit.
Just last week, the Department of Justice issued a report concluding that incarcerated men are commonly subjected to excessive force at the hands of staff in Alabama’s prisons.