A prison cell in Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, as seen on Oct. 22, 2019. The Contract Review Committee approved a $200,000 contract to pay a law firm to defend ADOC against alleged civil rights abuses. (File)
A legislative committee Thursday approved legal contracts for the Alabama Department of Corrections involving prison construction and alleged civil rights violations by a corrections officer.
Members of the Contract Review Oversight Committee approved a two-year, $200,000 contract with Terri O. Tompkins, Esq. of Tuscaloosa-based Rosen Harwood, PA. The contract will be paid at the state’s standard rate of $195 per hour.
Tompkins will represent the ADOC in the case of Elizabeth McElroy vs. Gwendolyn Givens out of the U.S. District Court from the Northern District of Alabama.
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“This was necessitated by an amended complaint filed a year after the initial complaint,” said Clay Crenshaw, chief deputy attorney general with the Alabama Attorney General’s Office. “We have a conflict-of-interest situation that resulted in having to hire a new lawyer.”
A previous contract was awarded to another attorney, Albert Jordan of Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff & Brandt, LLC to represent the state in the case for the same amount. That attorney has now been replaced with the new contract.
The lawsuit alleges that Kenneth Cedrick Gilchrist Jr., who was stabbed in October 2021 while incarcerated at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, was brought to a barbershop in the facility by two corrections officers instead of the infirmary. Gilchrist eventually died in the barbershop. The suit also alleged that a nurse practitioner working at the site failed to provide Gilchrist with necessary medical care even though “she had the opportunity and obligation to do so.” Elizabeth McElroy is Gilchrist’s representative in the case.
The approval of the contract means that the Contract Review Committee has endorsed ADOC agreements with private law firms to defend corrections officers against civil rights claims for three consecutive months.
Some of the contracts that appeared before the committee were amendments to the original that allowed the ADOC to retain counsel for cases that are ongoing. In December, the committee approved contracts to defend the agency against alleged civil rights abuses that totaled $4.8 million between ADOC and Bill Lundsford, an attorney based out of Huntsville with Butler Snow.
Lunsford had already received $14.9 million from the state in June 2023 to continue to represent the ADOC in cases. In the previous month of that year, he was awarded $7.68 million.
In November, lawmakers also approved another eight contracts for about $10 million to either defend corrections officers or to pay evaluators to review mental health conditions in the prisons, in conjunction with an ongoing lawsuit over mental health treatments in the facilities.
The bulk of the cost for Corrections in November, almost $9 million, stemmed from one contract that was awarded to Lunsford.
Members of the committee also approved a $200,000 legal contract between ADOC and Alina Arbuthnot, Esq. of Birmingham-based Maynard Nexsen, PC for legal services for the new prison construction plan.
“Vendor has experience and expertise in Title 39 of public works law necessary to advise the ADOC,” the accompanying agenda states. The contract is at a rate of $195 per hour and will run through 2026.
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