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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A new report suggests that Alabama has the deadliest prisons in the country.
The Montgomery-based nonprofit organization Equal Justice Initiative says Alabama prisons are the nation's most lethal.
Prison system statistics and news releases show 18 inmates have been killed in state prisons since October 2016.
An attorney with the nonprofit, Charlotte Morrison, says violence is epidemic in state prisons. She says prison staff and inmates live under the constant threat of violence.
Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Horton says he is unaware of how the organization produced its comparison. However, he says the prison homicide rate is a priority concern.
Horton says there's a direct correlation between prison violence and a shortage of correctional staff combined with overcrowded prisons.
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