“I think they are off-base in their findings,” she said, “but I don’t want to respond to any one part of the findings.”
Thomas said the Tutwiler administration would look “very carefully” at the contents of the report, and said that she looked forward to working with the DOJ “to understand the valid complaints that they raise and hopefully finding resolution without the necessity of imposing some court action.”
Bryan Stevenson, the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, said he found the report to be troubling and felt that quick action by the state was imperative, calling the DOJ report a “serious indictment of the conditions of confinement that exist at the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women.
“I think it’s a very thorough and troubling set of findings that ought to warrant a very significant response from the governor and the department to immediately remediate these very serious problems at Tutwiler.”
CHAPTER 33
When the EJI findings were reported in 2012, they had asked the DOJ to conduct an investigation and a report was issued by the National Institute of Corrections, a part of the DOJ. A team had been sent to Tutwiler at that time and found numerous instances of abuse of inmates by staff, as well as problems with the way inmate complaints were handled.
Kim Thomas claimed that her administration was not being given enough credit for the work that she said was being done to correct the problems listed in the reports. Thomas said she was surprised that the agencies were giving so much credence to what she considered to be unfounded allegations.
The DOJ investigators had spent four days at Tutwiler in April 2013 and conducted interviews of dozens of prisoners, as well as staff. They reviewed incident reports, disciplinary reports, and investigative reports, as well as 233 letters from current Tutwiler prisoners about a variety of complaints.
As a result of the investigation, the DOJ released what they called a “number of factual determinations” about the conditions at Tutwiler, saying that for nearly two decades, the Tutwiler staff had sexually abused and harassed inmates with no fear of disciplinary action. Staff members had raped, sodomized, fondled, and coerced prisoners to engage in oral sex, the report said. Prison officials discouraged inmates from reporting such abuse, placing them in segregation if they complained. Thomas claimed this practice had since been stopped.
Prison authorities did not adequately investigate the inmates’ claims of sexual abuse and harassment, the report said, and stated that allegations had been verified by paternity tests, lie detector examinations, and statements by other prisoners. A set of measures was included in the report, which the DOJ called minimal remedial measures. This included complying with the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which is a federal law, and making sure that appropriate investigations took place when prisoners complained of sexual abuse or other misconduct. The report also said it was necessary to recruit more female corrections officers to work at the prison.
Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett said efforts had already been put into place to recruit female officers, and said other remedial measures were also under way. The agency had worked hard to implement the recommendations in the EJI’s 2012 report, Commissioner Thomas said, including proper training for prison staff in managing female inmates and installation of additional security cameras in the prison.
“We’ve never downplayed the importance of these concerns,” Thomas added, saying that the ADOC had been actively addressing the issues from the very beginning.
“I’m going to do everything within my power, with the resources that are allocated to us,” the commissioner said, “to make sure that we afford the best living conditions and the best environment for our female offenders.”
It was apparent, however, that despite the claims of reform, conditions at Tutwiler were a far cry from those at the DeKalb County Jail. Inmate Karri Willoughby was in for a very rude awakening when she became a resident of the state prison system.
CHAPTER 34
Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women is housed in a facility that has changed little from its 1940s original construction. It was built to house four hundred inmates; currently the number is over nine hundred. Inmates say the buildings are cold and drafty in winter, sweltering in summer, and beset with bugs that the inmates try to swat as they crawl on the floor and up the walls. Medical facilities are reported to be substandard, and until recently, HIV-positive inmates had been kept in isolation for years.
When new inmates, like Karri, arrive at the prison, they are given a physical and dental exam and are interviewed and given psychological testing. Mental-health specialists use those tests to determine what the inmate’s classification, counseling needs, and job assignments will be.
The Alabama Department of Corrections female inmate handbook says that all inmates are supposed to have access to health care services while at Tutwiler to meet “serious medical, dental, and mental-health care needs,” but a nurse who worked in the infirmary while she was an inmate at the prison told of women who had undergone surgical procedures being denied pain medication and getting sent back to their dorms before they were ready. Other inmates had complained of painful dental work being done without sufficient Novocain prior to drilling or pulling teeth.
One inmate wrote a very interesting account of how to get along in Tutwiler. According to her, some of the inmates were okay; some were terrible: Some are in for life and they don’t give a damn, and some are institutionalized and it’s all they know. Newcomers would be able to tell who’s who, and whether or not they were someone they would want or need to associate with.
If not, just stay to yourself, she said. There was absolutely no privacy—but you might as well accept that, she wrote.
As far as sex acts between inmates or between inmates and guards: You may see some of it going on in the showers and stuff but just mind your own business and you’ll be okay.
The writer listed the toiletries that were issued to the inmates each month: six rolls of toilet paper, two bars of state soap, thirty sanitary pads, and a tube of state toothpaste. A razor was also allowed, but it had to be turned in each month in order to get a new one. Other items could be bought through the store, if the inmate had family that provided limited amounts of store credit, or if they worked in the sewing plant, where they could make a few cents per hour sewing prison and jail uniforms for Tutwiler and other facilities throughout the state.
The writer finished by saying it was lonely and it was hot. There were no air conditioners; there were only floor fans that had to be rotated every four hours.
The days can be as short or as long as you want, she wrote. Mostly just follow the rules, mind your own business, don’t be too soft-hearted or generous; inmates will take advantage of you very quickly. Learn to say “no” nicely, and keep to yourself.
CHAPTER 35
By the time that Karri Willoughby donned the coarse, baggy white shirt and pants of a Tutwiler inmate and was assigned to a dorm, some conditions had begun to improve slightly and several of the recommendations had at least been started. The installation of surveillance cameras was the most obvious improvement. Incredibly, there had been only three cameras in the entire prison prior to the investigative reports, a situation that was unacceptable.
The plan was eventually to have more than three hundred cameras in place throughout the prison, and many have already been installed in the dining hall, main hall, dormitories, and several other common areas. The cameras would help to eliminate blind spots and provide evidence during investigations. The Tutwiler camera installation project would also serve as a model for other state prisons, and policies were being put into place for management of the cameras and training of employees who would be using the system.
After a shower renovation project was completed, privacy doors were installed in the shower rooms that allowed more privacy for the prisoners while still maintaining security requirements.
A new infirmary and receiving unit was planned, with
completion set for October 2015. It is set to have sixty receiving beds, twenty-four infirmary beds, and health care providing dental services, dialysis, hospice care, and four negative pressure cells for infectious diseases. A controversial HIV-POSITIVE isolation dorm at the prison had already been shut down.
Additional recreational space had been planned, but not yet implemented. Several areas within the prison were being used for recreational areas; and if the crowding is alleviated, prison officials say that one of the dorms may be repurposed for recreation.
More female corrections officers are being recruited, and several have already been hired. Showers are being stopped fifteen minutes prior to a walk-through head count, to prevent inmates from being viewed by guards during showers or using the toilet.
Despite the reforms that were getting under way, food quality in the prison remained an issue. One inmate, who worked in the kitchen, reported that some boxes that came in containing dry beans and peas were marked “unfit for human consumption” and were riddled with worms. Women would dump their trays of food into the trash when they were served the wormy vegetables. The kitchen worker also claimed that donations of fresh fruits and vegetables went to staff members’ homes instead of being prepared and served to the inmates.
“The staff would go through all that stuff and take what they wanted first,” the inmate claimed. “If there was anything left, somebody might get it.”
Another woman, a worker in the infirmary, said that although she admitted that prison was not meant to be a pleasant experience, she believed that the inmates at Tutwiler deserved much better than they had gotten for so many decades. They were not meant to have to worry constantly about guards watching them in the showers or on the toilets, or coughing for days without getting medical attention.
“They’re paying for their crimes,” the woman said. “It’s not meant to be the Hilton, but you still shouldn’t have to take a freezing cold shower in the dead of winter, be able to have more than one blanket, be able to eat something besides food that’s not even fit to make dog food out of.”
CHAPTER 36
There were pages of rules and regulations in the official handbook for female inmates issued by the ADOC. If Karri Willoughby’s behavior in the DeKalb County Jail was any indication, she was likely to be very dissatisfied with some of them. For example, while Karri was in the jail, she had been threatened with loss of visitation for refusing to cut her hair. It was longer than shoulder-length when she left the jail en route to Tutwiler, but things would be very different there.
Inmate’s hair must be well-groomed, the handbook said. Hair must be worn in proper style for health, identification and security reasons. Hair length must not reach beyond the collar of uniform shirt. You are not allowed to change your hair color except to let it return to its natural color. Inmates are not allowed to shave their heads.
The regulations on hair length were not likely to sit well with Karri, with little variation of styles possible. There would also be only the most basic toiletries and hair products available. Name brands would be a thing of the past.
Necessary toilet articles will be supplied at institutions or you can purchase items from the canteen so that you can maintain a neat and clean appearance, the handbook stated.
Your outer clothing will be exchanged on a regular basis as established in each institution. Clean shirts and trousers will be issued in exchange for your dirty ones. When your shoes need replacing, make your request to the supervisor on duty. All clothing is marked with indelible markings. When your job makes it necessary for you to wear special types of additional clothing, it will be marked and assigned to you, the handbook outlined.
Another regulation that was likely to be vexing to Karri was the state policy on Internet presence for inmates: You are not allowed to participate in any form of social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) while incarcerated in any ADOC facility.
And given Karri’s fondness for banking matters: You are not allowed to possess a credit card, debit card or prepaid card. You are not allowed to transfer or direct the transfer of funds to other inmates. Funds outside your [personal canteen account] must be administered by someone outside the institution that you have given power of attorney.
Medical information was given to all incoming inmates, but the amount and quality of health care likely varied from one institution to another. According to the handbook, During the new arrival medical, dental and mental health intake process at the ADOC reception institution (Tutwiler is the state’s reception institution for all female prisoners regardless of their later assignment), you will be provided an ADOC health, dental, and mental health services in greater detail. Items such as how to file a health services grievance or grievance appeal form if necessary, how to request routine sick call services, chronic care clinics conducted, periodic physical examinations completed, etc.
One of the most galling regulations for Karri might well have been the fact that she would not be allowed to communicate with Nathan Wilder, her love interest from the DeKalb County Jail. Wilder is currently serving a twenty-year sentence at the Limestone Correctional Facility in northwest Alabama, and letters back and forth in the jail had been one of Karri’s favorite avocations. That was not to be permitted in Tutwiler:
You are not allowed to write to or receive correspondence from other state, county, city or federal inmates or former inmates and/or probationers or parolees under ADOC supervision unless prior written approval has been received from the wardens /directors who have custody/supervision of the inmate.
CHAPTER 37
Visitation could very well be another sore point for Karri.
Rules for visiting the prison were very strict, and it is a very long drive from Ider to Wetumpka. Whether or not Jason Willoughby would bring the children such a long distance to visit their mother in the dismal atmosphere of Tutwiler remained to be seen.
Prisoners were allowed visits only from those people they had named on their visitation list: eight adults and eight minor children. For each child, the inmate would have to complete a “Request for Minor Children to Visit” form. Only four adults and four children could visit on each occasion, and children would have to be accompanied by an approved immediate family member on the active visitation list. Visitors must submit to a search, and vehicles entering the prison grounds would also be subject to being searched.
Special visits are allowed for immediate family members not on the visitation list but who live over five hundred miles from the prison. One special visit is allowed every six months if approved by the warden.
It remained to be seen if Jason Willoughby would be willing for his children to make the long trip to Wetumpka to visit their mother inside the prison, but there were programs available that might prove beneficial for Karri. Of course, that is, if she maintained a good conduct record and cooperated with the prison officials.
In 1987, Church Women United, the Alabama Prison Project, the Alabama Department of Corrections, and an array of dedicated volunteers designed and established a project to help incarcerated women have relationships with their children. The group had discovered that many of the women in prison never saw their children because the guardians were unwilling or unable to bring them to the prison.
The group established a network of churches across the state that provided drivers and vans to pick up children and drive them to Wetumpka each month so they could have a three-hour visit with their mothers in the prison chapel. The program has been a success, with over a hundred children spending time with their mothers each month.
The Aid to Inmate Mothers (AIM) program also offers classes for education and rehabilitation, which includes Parenting Education, Life Skills, Anger Management, Domestic Violence Education, Rape Survivors Groups, Job Readiness, HIV Prevention Education, and Women’s Health Education.
One of AIM’s most popular programs is also one of their newest and most successful. The Storybook Project gives inmates the opportunity to record themselv
es reading a bedtime story to their children, which is then mailed out to them. This provides an additional way of connecting mothers and children.
AIM also provides a service they call Project Reconnect, a reentry program to assist inmates who leave the prison. It provides clothing and hygiene articles and job search assistance, as well as other social services, to help inmates who are being released to transition from prison life and adjust to life in the community.
AIM has also opened a group home, called the AIM Service Center, which provides living space for ten women being released from custody. It affords the women a structured environment and case management to help them as they transition back into the community.
It would be quite some time before Karri Willoughby would need to be concerned about returning to the free world, since her release date is set for May 6, 2030. It is unlikely she will be leaving prison any sooner than that, since Billy Shaw’s family has vowed to do everything possible to see to it that she will serve her entire sentence with no parole. But in the meantime, some of the programs that will be available to her during her incarceration may help her to lead a more productive life.
CHAPTER 38
Karri Willoughby’s transfer from the DeKalb County Jail to Tutwiler Prison for Women had taken place without incident, once Karri had made her red-carpet-like walk from her cell to the transport vehicle, but her time in the spotlight was far from over.
Within a couple of months following her confession of murder, her sister, Kim Dalton, decided to make sure that there was no possible way that Karri could find a way to wrangle any financial profits from the death of Billy Shaw. Kim retained two highly capable attorneys from Fort Payne—Robert Wilson and Nikki Scott—and filed a lawsuit against Karri in the circuit court of DeKalb County asking for punitive damages, saying that Karri’s wrongful actions had caused Shaw’s death.
The Bad Nurse Page 7