UPDATED FEBRUARY 1, 2021

UPDATE

We have updated this petition after the dismissal of the SPLC's lawsuit against Sheriff Abernathy because there were not records to be released. We have updated our demands accordingly, especially the demand that the jail institute in-house COVID-19 testing.

Sheriff Ron Abernathy is risking the health of thousands of people in Tuscaloosa and Tuscaloosa’s leaders are letting him get away with it. On November 24, 2020, Abernathy gave the Tuscaloosa News the staggering confession that 176 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were detected in Tuscaloosa County Jail. From that interview we learned:

• The jail has only tested about 7% of its over 6000 bookings since March.
• The positivity rate for testing in the jail is 39%
• 156 cases of COVID had been previously unreported to the public
• The jail has been operating at 135% of its capacity. It is overcrowded.

These numbers make Abernathy’s jail a hot spot and a danger to the entire county. Now with the pandemic ranging like never before, Abernathy is breaking the law by refusing to reveal vital COVID information to the public. While these numbers are damning, we still do not know the full danger the jail poses to the people inside it and the community surrounding it because Sheriff Abernathy refuses to release the full data about COVID in the jail to the public.

Abernathy has repeatedly refused to comply with a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for public information regarding COVID safety protocols and statistics in the jail. This essential information, which all citizens are entitled to under Alabama Open Records Act, is needed to help make schools safe, keep small businesses afloat, and protect essential workers. SPLC staff attorney Alex Jordan has described the situation at the jail as a “perfect storm created for COVID-19 to spread” that greatly endangers “Tuscaloosa residents inside and outside of the jail.”

Abernathy’s lack of transparency is not surprising given growing evidence of his irresponsible management and unethical behavior. Abernathy has kept his jail overcrowded and unprepared to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Incarcerated people and jail staff do not have sufficient protective equipment, people are getting sick, and employees raising concerns have been silenced. People released from the jail into Tuscaloosa are unwittingly spreading COVID to their family, friends, and community.

At this point in the pandemic, everyone is aware of the small steps that are needed to keep our community safe, but Abernathy’s carelessness has turned Tuscaloosa County Jail into a death trap. Without reliable testing, access to PPE, and the ability to socially distance, Abernathy and the Tuscaloosa County Jail are not protecting our community, they are preying on the vulnerable and hiding the truth at a risk to everyone.

But Sheriff Abernathy alone is not the problem. Law enforcement and criminal justice leaders throughout Tuscaloosa must work to make the jail safer for our community by reducing the number of people incarcerated. Tuscaloosa Police Chief Brent Blankley, the Circuit and District Courts in Tuscaloosa, the Tuscaloosa City Council, the Tuscaloosa County Commission, Mayor Walt Maddox, and Probate Judge Rob Robertson must work together to reduce the population of the jail and ensure that it is no longer a danger to the people incarcerated in it and the community outside it. 

We the undersigned demand the following of Sheriff Abernathy and the rest of Tuscaloosa’s leaders:

1. Implement an in-house testing plan that tests everyone in the jail and tests every new person booked into the jail.
2. The immediate creation of a  jail “COVID dashboard” to inform the public weekly on COVID-19 cases
3. The immediate collection and distribution of personal protective equipment for all incarcerated people and jail staff
4. The immediate emergency release of all medically vulnerable people incarcerated in the jail.
5. The reduction of jail admission and population to the maximum extent possible by following the recommendations of The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights. 

Release the data. Release the people. Release the Truth.