ATMORE, Ala. (AP) – Alabama faces more prison uprisings unless the problems of overcrowding and understaffing are addressed, Gov. Robert Bentley said Tuesday as he visited a maximum-security facility that has seen two violent disturbances in the past several days.
“What we have today in Alabama makes it dangerous not just for the inmates, but for our guards and our wardens. We want to minimize that,” the Republican governor said at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, about 50 miles north of Mobile.
Prison officials said inmates at Holman stabbed the warden and a corrections officer on Friday night and inmates seized control of a prison dorm for several hours Monday after officers tried to apprehend a prisoner suspected of stabbing another inmate.
Prison commissioner Jeff Dunn said the Holman prison is “secure,” but special response teams will remain on site for the time being.
There were 17 officers on duty Friday night, overseeing nearly 1,000 inmates. Emergency response teams brought the situation under control by Saturday morning, and the prison was still locked down Monday when the stabbing took place.
Monday’s disturbance marked the third incidence of violence within a week in the state’s troubled prison system. An officer was stabbed last week at another Alabama prison.
Bentley is asking legislators to approve an $800 million bond issue to build four new, large prisons and shutter most existing facilities.