House Speaker Pro Tem Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, sits in the speaker’s chair in the Alabama House of Representatives on Feb. 8, 2024 in Montgomery, Alabama. During a meeting of the state’s Contract Review Committee on Thursday, Pringle asked a DOC attorney to respond to what he described as an assault on an inmate and an extortion attempt directed at the inmate’s family. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
A member of the Legislature’s Contract Review Committee Thursday asked an attorney for the Alabama Department of Corrections to respond to what he said was an extortion threat to a constituent whose child is in prison.
Rep. Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, told Mandy Speirs, assistant general counsel for the Alabama Department of Corrections, that the constituent had received a video claiming that their loved one had been sexually assaulted, with a threat for further violence if they did not get money.
Pringle spoke as the committee considered a contract from The Moss Group Inc. based out of Washington D.C. According to the contract description, it is intended to provide “strategic support, consulting services on sexual safety, operational practice, staff training, PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act) compliance (and) maintain continuity of efforts with regard to (the) Male Inmate Pilot Risk Reduction Plan.”