‘It just doesn’t let up’: Alabama state prisons rife with violence, inmates say

State's corrections department says things are under control' after labor strike began in September over conditions, but images and interviews say otherwise

Last Friday, five days after Alabama prisoners launched a statewide labor strike, Republican governor Kay Ivey stood on the steps of the governor's mansion and assured reporters that the head of the state's beleaguered corrections department had things well under control".

But images and interviews from inside the state's prisons show a system in disarray, with deteriorating conditions, pervasive violence, multiple deaths and little oversight from staff.