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DOC constituent services reports 2,336 inquiries in quarter; wellness, health and safety top concerns
Summary
Stephanie Johnson, the Alabama Department of Corrections constituent services coordinator, told the committee that her office received 2,336 inquiries during the July–September quarter, with wellness, health and inmate-safety concerns the most common categories.
Stephanie Johnson, the Department of Corrections’ constituent services coordinator, told the Joint Interim Committee on Corrections that her office logged 2,336 inquiries in the July–September quarter and is refining intake and web forms to better classify complaints.
Johnson said the top five complaint categories were inmate wellness (requests to check on inmates who had not been heard from), inmate health (medication and medical questions), inmate safety (concerns that a person’s situation is not safe), inmate release (questions about mandatory or end-of-sentence release and parole), and facility conditions.
The quarter’s tally included 114 duplicate submissions, Johnson said, and the team’s current average case-completion time is 2 days, 8 hours and 29 minutes; she said she wants to reduce that to one day. She told the committee she is hiring for four vacant liaison positions at Easterling, Limestone, St. Clair and Staton correctional facilities.
Johnson outlined authorization and HIPAA-related limits on information release: the DOC will investigate all inquiries but will not disclose medical or other protected information to third parties unless the inmate has designated those people to receive information. She also said health services will notify a designated contact under three conditions: if an inmate is admitted to a hospital (notification within one business day), if there is a significant change in condition, or if the inmate receives a poor prognosis.
Representative England and other members pressed Johnson on extortion and threats. Johnson said extortion-related safety concerns are high priority and that liaisons contact family members by phone when investigations indicate extortion or threats. She said direct reports of staff misconduct are handled by wardens and the department’s investigators, who can pull video and other evidence for internal probes.
Committee members asked that the constituent services quarterly summary and the underlying monthly reports be shared with the full committee so legislators can track trends across multiple months.
Ending: Members thanked Johnson and urged her to continue filling liaison vacancies and refining the web form to improve categorization and response times.
