Donaldson inmates ignite garbage pile they say was drawing pests into prison

A fire lit outside Donaldson Correctional Facility on Sunday was started by incarcerated men who say that staff failed to dispose of garbage piling outside the prison.

Video taken at the prison shows black smoke rising from a burning pile of garbage in the concrete yard, just feet away from the prison’s kitchen. Based on what inmates said in the video, prison staff had not disposed of the roughly 20-yard-long heap of boxes, pallets and trash bags for some time, although it’s unclear exactly how long it sat there.

“They wouldn’t take the trash out, so the inmates burned it,” one of the men says in the video.

Garbage burns outside Donaldson Correctional Facility on Sunday, June 26, 2022, in Bessemer, Ala.

The video was posted to social media Sunday afternoon and shared with the Advertiser.

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In a conversation on Monday, a man incarcerated at Donaldson who asked to remain anonymous because he feared retaliation from prison staff, said the trash had attracted pests that had come into the building.

“It’s been going on for a while now, and it had gotten to the point where maggots was crawling all in the hallways and rats and roaches are everywhere in here,” he said.

He said he thinks the issue stems from a shortage of workers.

“… They’re so short-staffed that they don’t have enough people to take the guys to the dumpster to dump it,” he said.

Kelly Betts, spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Corrections, confirmed that inmates started the fire. Betts said it was extinguished and no one was injured but could not provide any additional information.

Officials at Donaldson Correctional Facility have not returned the Advertiser’s calls.

The treatment of Alabama’s prisoners remains the subject of an ongoing lawsuit by the United States Department of Justice. The DOJ’s complaint, filed in 2020, says cruel and inhumane conditions inside the Alabama correctional facilities violate the Constitution.

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“Alabama fails to provide adequate protection from prisoner-on-prisoner violence and prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse, fails to provide safe and sanitary conditions, and subjects prisoners to excessive force at the hands of prison staff,” the Justice Department wrote.

The Advertiser relies on tips from incarcerated people or those with ties to the correctional system to report on Alabama’s prisons.

Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanMealins.

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This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Garbage fire at Donaldson lit over unsanitary conditions