By Alabama Public Radio
Wetumpka, AL – A settlement between the Alabama Department of Corrections and an organization representing inmates will result in improved health care at Tutwiler Prison for Women. Under the agreement, a doctor and mental expert as well as attorneys and advocates from the Southern Center will monitor the Wetumpka prison for four years to ensure the department of corrections is following rules. The Southern Center is an Atlanta-based nonprofit law firm that filed suit in 2002 when Tutwiler had more than one thousand women in an area that was designed to hold about 360. The settlement must still be approved by federal judge Myron Thompson. He visited the prison and ruled it unconstitutional in December of 2002. D-O-C spokesman Brian Corbett says the department could not comment on the settlement until Thompson makes it final. This is the third lawsuit involving inmate health care that D-O-C has settled this month.