PETITION: Alabama Parents for ADOC Accountability
John Q. Hamm (Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections)
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What is going on?
In November 2022, Cameron Holifield died in an Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) prison just five days before he was scheduled to be released. He was only 22 years old.
After his death, the ADOC refused to share any information with Cameron’s grieving parents about how he died. They also refused to share any information about what had happened to his body. For months, Cameron’s family called looking for answers and hoping to bury their son. ADOC staff hung up on them.
Because Alabama has the deadliest prison system in the nation, Cameron’s family is not alone in experiencing this callous disregard. In 2022 alone, at least 226 people died in ADOC custody, leaving our state prison system with a mortality rate more than four times higher than the national prison average. More than 1 in 5 of the people who died in ADOC custody in 2022 died by homicide, suicide, or a drug overdose. As people in ADOC custody die by the hundreds each year, parents whose children die in Alabama prisons are routinely disrespected, ignored, and denied information about their loved one’s death. This loss of life, combined with the mistreatment of grieving families by state government leaders, has been ignored too long.
How can I help?
As parents living in Alabama, we are coming together to make two things clear: 1) that no parent should have to bury a child who was in state custody, and 2) that in the terrible event that a child does pre-decease their parents, those parents should not ever be treated in the way that Cameron’s parents (and others) have been by the ADOC. Any parent, regardless of whether your child has been incarcerated in Alabama, can sign this letter in support.
Please review and sign the parent letter below, which is addressed to ADOC Commissioner John Q. Hamm. Then, share this sign-on letter with other parents in your community. The ADOC needs to change their policies to respect parental rights, and they need to know that parents across Alabama stand together against this kind of callous treatment.
Sponsored by
To:
John Q. Hamm (Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections)
From:
[Your Name]
Dear Commissioner John Q. Hamm,
We come to you today in our most important, personal capacity: as parents.
In November 2022, Cameron Holifield died in your custody at Staton Correctional Facility just four days before his scheduled release date. He was only 22 years old. In the months after his death, Cameron’s grieving parents struggled to learn anything about his passing. Worse still, your agency would not even tell Cameron’s parents what happened to his body. When they called asking, your staff hung up the phone on them. They are not the first parents to be treated by the Alabama Department of Corrections with this kind of deep disrespect.
We are writing to you as parents because this is inexcusable. To begin with, no parent should have to bury a child who was in state custody. The number of people dying in your agency’s custody is indefensible, and each time it happens, yet another family is torn apart. The mortality rate for people in Alabama prisons is more than four times the national prison average. Going to prison should not be a death sentence – but too often in Alabama, it is. We implore you to follow federal court orders related to fully staffing Alabama’s prisons, and we urge you to follow recommendations made by the DOJ to improve safety for people who are in your custody.
In the event that somebody’s child does die in ADOC’s custody, we demand that the family be treated with respect and immediately provided with information, including the location of their child’s body. As I am sure you can understand, losing a child is any parent’s greatest fear. Parents have a right to mourn and bury their children, and it is unacceptable for the ADOC to continue stonewalling grieving parents.
Some of the signatories to this letter have (or had) children in your custody. Many of us do not. But we all stand together as parents to demand that decency that is due to our children and our families.
Signed, the following concerned parents of Alabama: