Alfonzo Minter was stabbed to death at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama, last week.
On Friday, Mr. Minter, 48, was stabbed in the head and possibly in the back, AL.com reported. He remained conscious for several minutes after the attack and then died.
He is at least the fourth inmate in recent months to be killed in an Alabama prison. Last month, EJI called on the Department of Corrections to remove the warden of St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville, Alabama, following the tragic murder of Jodey Waldrop. Mr. Waldrop was the third inmate to be murdered at St. Clair in the preceding ten months. His was the fifth murder in an ADOC facility in the previous thirty months.
Alabama has one of the highest prison homicide rates in the country. Prisons in Alabama are at 190% capacity and a dramatic increase in violence, inmate stabbings, and corruption has been documented by EJI staff. EJI has previously reported widespread rape and sexual abuse of incarcerated women at Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama, as well as physical and sexual abuse directed at male prisoners by officers and staff at Elmore, Bibb, and Donaldson correctional facilities. EJI has previously reported that inmate violence is at an all-time high.
After EJI filed complaints, the United States Department of Justice launched independent investigations that confirmed that abusive and dangerous conditions in Alabama’s prisons violate the constitutional rights of prisoners. In January, the department notified Alabama Governor Robert Bentley that its investigation revealed a “toxic, sexualized environment that permits staff sexual abuse and harassment” at Tutwiler. Last summer, federal prosecutors obtained criminal convictions against several officers for their involvement in the 2010 murder of Rocrast Mack, an inmate at Ventress Correctional Facility.