History
Opened during December 1969, with a basic capacity for 520 medium-custody inmates including a death row cellblock with a capacity of 20. It was constructed for $5,000,000 during the administration of Governor of Alabama Lurleen Wallace and Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner James T. Hagen. The prisoners of the old Kilby Prison were moved to Holman Prison. It was named in honor of a former warden, William C. Holman.
On Friday August 29, 1975, two U.S. district court federal judges, William Brevard Hand and Frank M. Johnson Jr., prevented Alabama authorities from sending any more prisoners to Holman, Fountain Correctional Facility, Draper Correctional Facility, and the Medical and Diagnostic Center, due to overcrowding; the four prisons, designed to hold 2,212 prisoners, were holding about 3,800.
Since Holman opened, it gained a reputation for being the most violent prison in Alabama. Staff and prisoners stated that after Grantt Culliver became the warden, violence decreased. Hillary Heath, the inside producer of Lockup, said that it is difficult for reputations to die down, so Holman still has a reputation for being a violent prison.
Read more about this topic: Holman Correctional Facility
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