'Not just a prisoner': 35-year-old man dead after assault in north Alabama prison

Adrain Kimbrough, 35, died after an assault at Limestone Correctional Facility, just days after he was transferred to the prison in Harvest, Alabama.

The Alabama Department of Corrections confirmed via email Friday that Kimbrough was found dead in his cell, the apparent victim of an assault by another incarcerated person, on Wednesday. His sister, Jenneka Kimbrough, said the department told her the incident occurred around noon that day.

Kimbrough, from the small town of Lower Peach Tree in Wilcox County, leaves behind three children, ages 15, 16 and 17.

Jenneka Kimbrough said she was surprised when she received the call from the prison chaplain on Wednesday because she didn't know her brother had been transferred to Limestone. When she last spoke with her brother on Dec. 28, he was in Bibb Correctional Facility in Brent, Alabama.

Before he was at Bibb, he had spent several years at Bullock Correctional Facility in Union Springs, Alabama. Kimbrough said her brother, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, was kept in a cell where he received supervision due to his mental illness. She said she doesn't know if he received the same type of care at Limestone or if he was placed in "general population," large open-air dorms where dozens or hundreds or prisoners are held with less supervision.

"Was he in a cell? I want to know where he was. They (prison staff) haven't disclosed any of that information," Kimbrough said.

Kimbrough said she believes the prison system is to blame for her brother's death. "I'm fixing to have to bury my brother who's been in prison for over 14 years because of state negligence," she said.

She remembered her brother as a loving, caring person who struggled with moments of outbursts because of his struggle with mental illness.

"Adrain was not just a prisoner. He wasn't just a thrown-away person. This was my brother. He had three loving children out here waiting on him to come home, his mother. That was my brother," Kimbrough said. "He was a lovely person, despite what anyone else thought."

Kimbrough had been up for parole in 2015, seven years into his 20-year sentence, his sister said. His application for parole was denied. He was supposed to have another parole hearing in 2020, but the hearing was canceled because of COVID-19 restrictions on in-person hearings, his sister said. The hearing was never rescheduled.

The state's parole grant rate is currently at an all-time low, as fewer than 10% of all prisoners that come before the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles are granted parole most months, down from as high as 40% just a few years ago.

The state's prison system is also in disarray as deaths continue to mount at historic levels. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, at least 222 men and women died in Alabama prisons in 2022, the most in a calendar year on record.

The U.S. Department of Justice sued Alabama over the "unconstitutional" conditions of its prisons in 2020, writing that 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."

Several experts say understaffing and overcrowding at the facilities is to blame for rising death and violence. According to ADOC's most recent data, Alabama prisons are filled to 165% of designed capacity, while Limestone is filled to 142% of designed capacity.

Meanwhile, staffing levels at the prisons have fallen in recent years. A federal judge ordered Alabama to add 2,000 additional jobs to its prison system to address the ongoing crisis, but the state is still struggling to fill its previous staffing goals. In August, the department had more than 500 vacancies of 2,420 budget positions, which don't include the additional court-ordered positions.

Stacy George, a former correctional officer at Limestone, said in November that the state has lost control of its prisons due to low staffing.

“The Alabama Department of Corrections is not in control of any prison in Alabama, and they haven’t been for a long time,” George said.

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: 35-year-old Adrain Kimbrough dead in assault at north Alabama prison