SPLC To Voluntarily Dismiss Lawsuit Against Sheriff Abernathy

TUSCALOOSA, AL — An attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center confirmed to Patch on Friday that it has filed to voluntarily dismiss a lawsuit against Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Ron Abernathy, which claims the sheriff refused to respond to repeated requests for data and information regarding the spread of the coronavirus in the county jail.

Alexandra Jordan, a staff attorney for the SPLC, said a hearing was initially set for Tuesday, Feb. 9, but the Montgomery-based civil rights advocacy group has opted to dismiss the case under the notion that the records documenting a May outbreak in the jail and another in September did not exist. The group claimed in November to have made multiple requests for this data going back to May, but said they never received any kind of response until after the lawsuit was filed.

"We are going to voluntarily dismiss this lawsuit and now we’re waiting to see if the sheriff will cover our fees that we had to incur to bring the suit in the first place, because he didn’t respond for four months," she said.

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The SPLC, along with grassroots activists in Tuscaloosa, have been outspoken against practices at the Tuscaloosa County Jail, going as far as to hold a protest at the sheriff's office and county courthouse on Dec. 19, 2020 demanding that Abernathy release the requested data.

Local activist and protest organizer Mike Altman echoed Jordan, saying Abernathy met their demands by admitting that he had no real records.

"The memo he sent out was not records or communications or emails, it was a summary of things he claims they are doing with no actual records to back it up," he said. "So yes, he met our demands but he has not met his duty to take COVID seriously, and the lack of records proves it."

Abernathy made some data public in the days that followed the lawsuit and subsequent protest, even implementing a new mask protocol in the jail after the public spoke out on the issue. Despite spending nearly $1 million in CARES Act money for improvements at the jail, including adding a telemedicine station, a full-body scanner and the installation of video conference capabilities in cells, Abernathy said much of it is easily overlooked and lost amid political vitriol on social media and out in the community.

In a nearly hour-long, in-person interview with Patch on Thursday, the sheriff lamented the spread of misinformation and said he responded on Dec. 26, 2020 to the requests set out in the initial complaint.

"We gave them everything we thought they wanted," he said. "Basically, we’re asking for the case to be dismissed because we supplied whatever information was requested and it's being implied out there like we haven't. [Altman] is still going around saying stuff, like we aren’t giving out masks, when we are. I haven’t heard one word from this gentleman."

Altman has been vocal and public in his opposition to coronavirus protocols in the jail and what he views as a complete lack of transparency. In his most recent criticism of practices at the sheriff's office and jail, Altman said on Thursday that organizers had delivered 10,200 masks to the jail in the last three weeks, but heard from people inside the jail that they were only being given once a week.

"We called the jail multiple times over a two-week period and left messages with the jail administration about setting up a mask donation program and never heard anything back from them," he told Patch on Thursday. "At that point, we gave up and decided to do it on our own. It was clear they really didn’t care."

After expressing gratitude for the mask donation, Abernathy explained that in the early stages of the pandemic, jail officials would give visitors or inmates a mask when they came in, when they moved from room to room or whenever they requested one.

"When they filed their lawsuit with us, we went in and started giving out the masks basically two times a week, Tuesdays and Fridays, and the reason we still gave them and the reason we did it was to have documentation for our employees," the sheriff said. "Down at the jail, these people [incarcerated] don’t always follow the rules and we have some that don’t wear the masks we give them."

The spreading of the virus among the jail population and staff is a central pillar of the opposition from the SPLC and local advocates like Altman, along with mask distribution, testing frequency and overpopulation of those incarcerated.

Jordan, on behalf of the SPLC, did give credit to Abernathy for going "above and beyond what the law explicitly required him to do" in responding to the public records request, but said he fell well short of fulfilling his duty to keep the community informed and safe.

"I think we’re disappointed that they haven't committed any of their COVID protocols to written form, but to hear from folks in the community, it's not that surprising," she said.

Abernathy said the jail follows the same guidelines provided by state and federal public health officials, before crediting his staff for its Herculean response to a protracted and logistically-challenging crisis.

TCSO Chief of Administration Loyd Baker, who was tasked with the jail's coronavirus response from the onset of the pandemic, told Patch that due to the low number of arrests as a result of the pandemic, the jail also didn't see near the level of spreading that was initially expected, which could raise questions for those viewing the data without context.

"The number of arrests and infections have been so low that people think we’re hiding something because we haven’t had any problems in the jail," he said, referring to a lower-than-normal level of local residents going in and out of the jail. "We have had [cases] but it's been so low and you would think in that confined area it would be spreading like wildfire."

From a PPE standpoint, Baker also said the jail was lucky due to already having a reserve stockpile of several thousand N95 masks from the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic. Abernathy pointed out that this good fortune and the level of preparation have been overlooked by protestors, with misinformation continuing to run rampant with respect to the current protocols in place.

He said as it stands, no jail employees are out on coronavirus leave and three inmates tested positive as of Thursday and were receiving treatment. Protesters and the SPLC claim the jail is overcrowded with minor offenders, which has resulted in past spikes. However, Abernathy insisted the high inmate population is primarily due to an influx of state inmates that started back in March.

Altman said while Abernathy is correct in his claim that the Alabama Department of Corrections has slowed down admitting people to overcrowded state prisons, the issue of local overpopulation presents yet another reason the sheriff should be lobbying judges and other officials for the release of people in the jail on minor offenses.

"But the overcrowding actually helps his bottom line, so he won’t," Altman said.

Abernathy disagreed, saying the job of the sheriff's office and jail is to enforce the laws and care for those in their custody. The rest, he said, is up to the legal system.

"I can’t just let anybody out of the jail," Abernathy commented. "That’s beyond my capabilities. We arrest people, we don’t judge them."

At present, Abernathy says the jail has over 125 state inmates, who can be housed at a county jail at a far cheaper rate than a state prison, but did say he had managed to send back about 25-30 inmates to state facilities to alleviate some of the strain.

"Attention needs to be on the state and taking the inmates already sent," he said. "We're supposed to hold inmates for up to a year, it’s a pretrial function. If the state would step up and actually do what they should do and take these inmates, then in reality our numbers would be at that normal capacity level. They say they are going to start taking more."

Moving forward, though, Altman says he hopes the sheriff's office and county jail will place a renewed emphasis on transparency and caring for inmates. This could start, he said, by implementing an online coronavirus dashboard to make jail data readily available to the public and reinvesting revenue generated by the inmates into in-house testing capabilities.

"The jail produces over $64,000 a month, on average, according to the last audit, solely on commissary and canteen," Altman said. "That money comes from incarcerated people and their families and the least the sheriff could do is use it to test those people. Not to mention he could pick up the phone and work with judges to get people who don’t need to be there out of the jail."

When asked what he would say to those protesting if he had the chance, Abernathy once again mentioned improvements made just in the last year to underscore his office's dedication to the safety of inmates, staff and the community.

"We’re blessed that our County Commission funds us," he said. "We have a full-time medical staff down there with physicians, even with a part-time psychiatrist, which is almost unheard of with any jail in Alabama. We were lucky because our Commission had reserve funds. I've been talking to other sheriffs and they didn’t want to buy things because you had to front the money and are not even sure you will even get it back [through a CARES Act reimbursement]."

As the legal battle winds down, Jordan said she was at least glad to see public engagement and awareness.

"If folks really want to have a say in how their government is run and really influence the people who are elected to protect and serve them, then they need to stay politically engaged," she said. "The sheriff is just one person, but the County Commission is also accountable for what happens in the jail and nobody is asking them 'why aren’t you doing something?' In the city of Tuscaloosa, Mayor [Walt] Maddox is running for re-election and I haven’t heard how Mayor Maddox plans to address the COVID hotspot at the jail."

After filing for his own motion to dismiss to the lawsuit, Abernathy reiterated his disappointment in the lack of communication from protestors and organizers, while also pledging to maintain what he views as transparent operations for the sheriff's office and county jail.

"You would think if you have a question, we’re more than willing to talk," he said. "Just like people have questioned about the COVID numbers, I have been putting them out since the beginning. We’re not denying information. If you call and ask us for information, we’re going to give it to you."

Ryan Phillips is an award-winning journalist, editor and columnist who is the community publisher of Tuscaloosa Patch. To reach Phillips with questions, news tips or advertising inquiries, email ryan.phillips@patch.com.