Holman Correctional Facility

Opened during December 1969, Holman originally had a basic capacity for 520 medium-custody inmates, including a death row cellblock with a capacity of 20. It was constructed for $5,000,000 during the administration of Governor Lurleen Wallace and Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner James T. Hagan. The prisoners of the old Kilby Prison were moved to Holman Prison. It was named in honor of a former warden, William C. Holman.[2]

Due in part to legislative rules creating long-term penalties for drug crimes, the prison population at Holman and other facilities began to climb in the 1970s. On Friday August 29, 1975, two U.S. federal district court judges, William Brevard Hand and Frank M. Johnson Jr., ordered Alabama authorities to stop sending any more prisoners to Holman, Fountain Correctional Facility, Draper Correctional Facility, and the Medical and Diagnostic Center, due to overcrowding; the four prisons, designed to hold 2,212 prisoners, were holding about 3,800.[7]

Since Holman opened, it gained a reputation for being the most violent prison in Alabama, a situation exacerbated by the years of overcrowding. In 1974 an employee was killed by an inmate with a knife. In 1985 a large riot occurred in which 22 men were taken hostage.[8]

Staff and prisoners said that after Grantt Culliver became the warden in 2002, violence decreased. This was covered in the documentary Lockup: Holman Correctional Facility (2006), which MSNBC produced. Hillary Heath, the inside producer of Lockup, said that it is difficult for reputations to die down, so Holman still has a reputation for violence.[9] By 2016 violence had increased again.

2016 U.S. prison strike started here at Holman correctional facility and spread to more than 10 states. The prison strike wanted to increase wages for prison labor and improve conditions across prisons in the United States.

Riots broke out in protest against conditions in March 2016.[10][11] In the first riot fires were set in a prison dorm; both the warden and a prison guard sustained stab wounds.[12] An individual recorded portions of the riot on a cell phone and posted the recordings to social media sites.[13]

On September 1, 2016, Correctional Officer Kenneth Bettis died from a stab wound while performing his duties overseeing prisoners in the dining hall of the prison. Later that month, a group of corrections officers went on strike over safety concerns and overcrowding.[6] Prisoners refer to the facility as a "slaughterhouse," as stabbings are a routine occurrence.[14]

In late January 2020, the state announced most of the site would be closed due to severe deterioration of underground utilities that served the prison. Most inmates were moved from Holman to other facilities. However, death row and the execution chamber were to remain at Holman. [15]

In July, 2020, Department of Corrections Commissioner Jefferson Dunn provided an update to state legislators on the status of the state prison system. He stated that the current number of inmates being housed at Holman was 314 following the closure of much of the facility and relocation of many inmates.[16]

The Gulf Coast area, where Holman is located, often has temperatures of 100 °F (38 °C) and high humidity during summer. The prison administration has not installed air conditioning, so the prison has hundreds of industrial fans used for moving the air in an attempt to provide cooling. The hottest areas in the prison are the kitchen facilities.[9]

Staff shortages are made worse by absenteeism. On some days, as few as nine guards are on duty. Only two of the six towers on the perimeter are manned. Annual staff turnover is reported to be 60 percent.[6] As a result of a hiring freeze in 2014, mandatory overtime was commonly required for the guards.[17]

In December 2018, press reports indicated the facility had only 72 of the 195 guards needed for routine operations without officers on overtime.[18]

The prison has a capacity of over 800 prisoners.[19] The state's death row has a capacity of fifty-six but in early 2017 held almost two hundred men.[20]

Hillary Heath, the inside producer of Lockup, said that when she asked prisoners to describe Holman, they used names like "The Slaughterhouse", "Slaughter Pen of the South", and "House of Pain", which referred to the frequent stabbings and violent attacks committed among the prisoners. The names "The Bottom" and "The Pit" refer to the prison's location in southern Alabama. One inmate said that, within the state, "you can't get any lower than this."[9]

Heath reported that Holman inmates made "julep," a homegrown whiskey, using water, sugar, and yeast. She described julep as a brown liquid with dark floating chunks, resembling raw sewage. She said its odor "was not as vile as I imagined", and it smelled like sourdough bread and prunes.[9]

Prisoners who commit indecent exposure violate rule #38, thus indecent exposure is referred to by inmates as "doing a '38'". Violating rule 38 of ADOC policy requires an inmate to attend sex addiction courses.[9]

Death row (does not include prisoners who were sent to Holman only for their executions):

• Henry Francis Hays - Convicted of the murder of Michael Donald[21] - Alabama Institutional Serial #Z443 - Executed on June 6, 1997.[22]
• Anthony Ray Hinton - Released after 30 years on death row for a crime he didn't commit.
• Shonelle Jackson - Convicted of murder during the commission of a robbery.
• Courtney Lockhart - Convicted of the murder of 18-year-old Lauren Burk.
• Walter McMillian - Released after 6 years on death row for a crime he didn't commit.
• Walter Leroy Moody - Convicted of the murder of Robert Smith Vance[23] - Alabama Institutional Serial #00Z613[24] - Executed on April 19, 2018. At age 83, he is the oldest Alabama death row inmate to be executed since that State reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
• Devin Moore - Killed two police officers and a dispatcher at a police station after being arrested on suspicion of stealing a car.
• Daniel Lee Siebert - Alabama Institutional Serial #00Z475[25] - Died from cancer while in custody in 2008, he was known for challenging protocol.[26]
• Nathaniel Woods, convicted of murder in 2005; controversial execution due to widespread skepticism about the legitimacy of his guilty verdict. - Executed on March 5, 2020.[27]

Non-death row:

• Bobby Frank Cherry - One of the Klan perpetrators of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, which killed four African-American girls.[28] He was convicted of the murders in 2002. On October 13, 2004, Cherry was transferred from Holman Prison to Atmore Community Hospital in Atmore.[29] Cherry died while in hospital custody on November 18, 2004.[30]
• Bobby Ray Gilbert AKA "Snake"- Featured in three parts of MSNBC's documentary Lockup, (2006), filmed inside Holman prison.[31][32]

• Capital punishment in Alabama

External image
Alabama's execution chamber

• Holman Correctional Facility (Alabama Department of Corrections)