Singleton et al v. Hamm et al.

The Alabama Department of Corrections is routinely incarcerating people past their release dates instead of releasing them to parole supervision. In just the past four years, this has meant over 1,500 people have been held for a total of over 66,000 days of excessive detention. The MacArthur Justice Center, along with co-counsel from McGuire & Associates, Covington and Burling, and Kelly Guzzo, is fighting to hold Alabama officials accountable and uphold people’s right to go home to their families and communities when their sentences are over.  

Under Alabama law, most people who are imprisoned by the Alabama Department of Corrections are eligible for mandatory release between 3-12 months before the end of their sentence. The Department has an obligation to calculate these earlier release dates and ensure that people are released to parole supervision. However, hundreds, if not thousands of people every year are imprisoned past their latest release date, and they are confined in some of the most dangerous prisons in the country. The MacArthur Justice Center partnered with local attorneys to investigate and document this problem, using publicly available data from ADOC and accounts from dozens of people who were overdetained with no explanation. Among those were Derrick Singleton, Deandra Whitehead, and Ray Traylor. All three were eligible to go home to their families and their communities under the Mandatory Release Law and were held for a combined 187 days (about 6 months), beyond their release dates. 

On August 8, 2024, in partnership with co-counsel from McGuire & Associates, Covington & Burling, and Kelly Guzzo, we filed a class action lawsuit in the Northern District of Alabama seeking justice for the thousands of people Alabama has illegally imprisoned.