FILE -In this March 12, 2016 file photo, the sign to The William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., is displayed. The Justice Department has determined that Alabama’s prisons are violating the Constitution by failing to protect inmates from violence and sexual abuse and by housing them in unsafe and overcrowded facilities, according to a scathing report Wednesday, April 3, 2019, that described the problems as “severe” and “systemic.”(Sharon Steinmann/AL.com via AP, File)
By The Associated Press & ABC 33/40
Alabama is shutting down a state prison building that houses more than 600 inmates because of sewer and other infrastructure problem’s in the 51-year-old facility.
Alabama Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn announced the plan Wednesday.
He says 617 inmates at Holman Correctional Facility at Atmore will be sent to other state prisons.
Dunn says the decision was made because maintenance crews were struggling daily to maintain sewer and electrical systems housed in a tunnel running beneath the main prison building.
Some inmates, including death row inmates, will remain at Holman. They will be in buildings that run on separate systems.
