22-year-old left brain dead from ‘days-long brutal torture’ in AL prison, lawsuit says
The family of a 22-year-old father who died while serving a year-long sentence in an Alabama prison filed a lawsuit against prison and corrections department officials, accusing them of failing to protect the man from inmate-on-inmate abuse.
Daniel Williams “was left brain dead” and died Nov. 9, 2023 — the same day set for his release — after “days-long brutal torture” by another inmate at the Staton Correctional Facility in Elmore, about a 15-mile drive north of Montgomery, the lawsuit said.
“Within days of reaching that time of when he would be free, he was held against his will for roughly three days, sexually assaulted, raped during that time, numerous times, had restraint marks and beat nearly to the point of unconscious,” Callee Mendenhall, one of the attorneys representing the family, told WKRG. “In fact, when they did find him, he was unconscious.”
McClatchy News reached out to the Alabama Department of Corrections, which operates the correctional facility, for comment Dec. 19 but did not immediately receive a response.
Williams’ death
“I’m coming home better then I was before drug free it’s been a crazy ride 3 different prisons now. It’s almost over,” Williams wrote in a Facebook post days before the alleged abuse began Oct. 19, according to the lawsuit.
Then, on Oct. 22, a prison warden contacted Williams’ family and told them he had overdosed on drugs, the lawsuit said.
But when the family arrived at the hospital, they found Williams had been beaten severely, the lawsuit said.
“He had bruises, cuts; there was indentions in his head, looked like a mop handle went across his head a couple of times,” Williams’ father, Terry Williams, told NBC News. “Before he even got to the hospital, he was already gone.”
Inmates and investigations later revealed that Williams was beaten, assaulted and forced to consume drugs while being held hostage in a housing dormitory by another inmate, according to the lawsuit, which said at least two other inmates “acted in concert” in Williams’ death.
During this time, the lawsuit said “no headcounts of inmates in the open bay dormitories were conducted that would indicate an issue to the guards.”
On Oct. 22, an inmate reported the attacks on Williams to the guards, the lawsuit said. Williams was then found unconscious in the bed of an inmate who “has a notorious history of violent criminal acts” in the prison system, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit accused the corrections department of failing to take disciplinary measures that would have kept Williams away from the other inmate.
“I couldn’t save my son, but I want to save the next person,” Williams’ father told NBC.
Alabama prison conditions
A 2019 investigation of Alabama’s prisons by the Department of Justice revealed unconstitutional practices within the system.
The investigation found overcrowding and understaffing contributes to harmful conditions for prisoners. A year later, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the ADOC, accusing it of failing to “provide safe and sanitary conditions” for prisoners, according to a 2020 news release.
During Williams’ time at the Staton Correctional Facility, the lawsuit said the same problems continued. According to the lawsuit, there were a recorded 1,394 inmates — roughly 275% more than the designed capacity of 508 men.
“Alabama’s prison mortality rate is five times the national average,” the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice said in a 2023 report.
According to data from the organization, 325 people died in Alabama prisons in 2023.
An internal investigation relating to Williams’ death is ongoing, according to the lawsuit.
This story was originally published December 19, 2024 at 2:36 PM with the headline "22-year-old left brain dead from ‘days-long brutal torture’ in AL prison, lawsuit says."
