‘PREVENTABLE’

22-Year-Old Alabama Inmate Dies After Brutal Prison Assault: Family

Daniel Williams was left brain dead just two weeks before his scheduled release.

A 22-year-old man incarcerated in an Alabama prison is dead after being beaten and sexually assaulted just two weeks before he was scheduled to be released, according to his family. Daniel Williams was serving the final days of a 12-month sentence for second-degree theft at Staton Correctional Facility when he was “discovered unresponsive in his dorm” on Oct. 22, the Alabama Department of Corrections said in a statement that acknowledged a “possible inmate-on-inmate assault” had been reported. Williams’ family and several unnamed prison sources told the Alabama Political Reporter that he had been kidnapped and tortured for at least two days before being found and taken to a hospital, where he was declared brain dead. “When we went to see him he’s beaten and bruised up and you can tell where his hands were bound,” Williams’ stepmother said. A GoFundMe set up to handle funeral expenses explained that Williams died on Thursday, several days after being taken off life support. “Deaths like that of Mr. Williams are tragic, preventable, and happen all too frequently in Alabama’s prisons,” said Bryan Stevenson, the director of the Equal Justice Initiative.