What does it take for the national Department of Justice to zero in on a state’s prison system?  Well, a lot!

For starters:  multiple unexplained deaths.  Multiple law suits over inhumane conditions.  Repeated requests from advocacy groups and ACLU plus family members.

And then? And then prison guards joining a state-wide prison strike.

It shouldn’t have to come to this.  The state legislature has repeatedly, year in and out, ignored the problem within its prison system.  The legislature has allowed its Good Old Boy system to continue running Horror Houses–just as long as they don’t make the news.  But they are in the news, now, and that state legislature will have to focus on the inhumane conditions and commit money to the problems.  Because the DOJ will shine a light on the black holes called prisons, the legislature will also have to replace the overseers, the heads of the system that have allowed this moral rot to occur and continue.

It’s time.  It is years and years past time.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/10/justice-department-investigates-alabama-prison-conditions/