The Continuing Tragedy of Death by Suicide in Alabama’s Prisons

According to multiple reports received by EJI, Jeffery Floyd, 45, died by suicide by hanging in a cell at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama, on May 1. Mr. Floyd reportedly had been diagnosed with severe mental illness, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. He sought help from correctional officers the night before his death but received no assistance. Mr. Floyd’s death by suicide came just weeks before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that the “staggering” number of deaths by suicide in Alabama’s prisons are “due largely in part to the Department of Corrections’ deliberate indifference to the serious mental healthcare needs of its inmates in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” The Eleventh Circuit upheld the district court’s ruling that the Alabama Department of Corrections’s practices, including regularly failing to properly monitor suicidal inmates and sending acutely suicidal inmates to largely unmonitored segregation cells with access to tie off points “produce a mental-health care system that was ‘horrendously inadequate’ when taken as a whole.” Despite these legal victories there is still great concern that these tragic deaths will continue in part because state officials seem unmotivated to take these deaths seriously and even deny the widespread problem. The Eleventh Circuit noted this pattern when it rejected ADOC’s argument that the district court’s finding was invalidated by changes in circumstances. The appeals court found that ADOC had made no significant changes. Instead, ADOC has demonstrated “a long history of failing to comply with the remedial orders in this case” and making misrepresentations to the court. Misrepresentations made by ADOC continue to delay life saving remedies. ADOC is required to file monthly reports with the district court on restrictive housing unit trends. In April, ADOC told the court that its concern about mentally ill people suffering harm in solitary confinement or so-called “restrictive housing units,” was unfounded. Because “no inmate with SMI [serious mental illness] has died by suicide in an ADOC RHU in nearly six years,” ADOC asserted, its treatment of people with mental illness in segregation is adequate. But a closer review paints a darker picture. In just six months in 2024, the following men died in restrictive housing. Each had a history of mental health issues and was showing signs of being in a mental health crisis at the time of his death: - Clinton Bridges, 40, died in a suicide watch cell in the infirmary at St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville, Alabama, on September 14, 2024. According to an autopsy report, Mr. Bridges had been on suicide watch since September 11 when he told staff to “just let him die.” He refused to eat and although he was force-fed over the next three days, his body weight dropped below 100 pounds. Infirmary staff also reported that Mr. Bridges “was crawling around in the cell and was beating his head against the wall and running into the wall.” ADOC reported Mr. Bridges’s death was an “overdose,” but the autopsy stated that the cause of death was “inanition” (exhaustion due to starvation). - Coron Abdullah, 33, died in a restrictive housing cell in the infirmary at Donaldson on August 14, 2024. The coroner’s report stated that he had been assigned to a “Mental Health Unit” at Donaldson when he became “extremely dehydrated.” On August 13, Mr. Abdullah “became incoherent and [was] acting very erratic,” and an officer who had come to move him out of the infirmary “saw feces all over the cell walls and [that] the decedent was speaking incoherently.” By the time the officer notified a captain and returned, Mr. Abdullah was dead. His death has not yet been reported in ADOC’s statistical reports. - Timothy Johnson, 40, died at St. Clair Correctional Facility on August 3, 2024. Mr. Johnson had been the victim of repeated assaults while incarcerated and was reportedly being held in solitary confinement after coming off of suicide watch. A toxicology screen completed after his death found the presence of antipsychotic medication, a synthetic cannabinoid, and fentanyl in his bloodstream. ADOC did not authorize an autopsy and reported no cause of his death - Demetrise Maye, 29, died in a single-man cell at Donaldson on May 2, 2024. A coroner’s report stated Mr. Maye was being treated for depression. Five days before he died, he overdosed twice but was revived. ADOC classified his death as “accidental/overdose” due to fentanyl. Deaths in solitary confinement are inherently suspect. As the district court noted, placing people in restrictive housing without adequate monitoring: [P]revents people who need treatment from accessing it, stops those whose mental health is deteriorating from being caught before they lapse into psychosis or suicidality, and fosters an environment of danger, anxiety, and violence that constantly assaults the psychological stability of people with mental illness in ADOC custody. And yet few of these deaths are investigated. ADOC has not reported a cause of death or failed to conduct an autopsy for more than a quarter of the 277 deaths that occurred in Alabama prisons in 2024. EJI’s research indicates that a number of those deaths occurred in restrictive housing cells. With more complete information, the true rate of suicides inside Alabama’s prisons may prove to be far higher.