Alabama Department of Corrections withheld required audit documents from the state examiner, an unprecedented refusal she said

On July 29, 2026, at a Joint Legislative Prison Oversight Committee meeting at the State House in Montgomery, Alabama's chief examiner of public accounts, Rachel Riddle, told lawmakers that the Alabama Department of Corrections was withholding documents her office needs to complete a legislatively mandated audit of the agency. Riddle said her staff has "run into some issues getting certain documents" from ADOC, which is asserting that some of the requested material is "privileged and restricted."

"I have never had a state agency not give me documents, even confidential ones, and so this is new territory for me," Riddle told the committee. She said the Department of Examiners of Public Accounts has enlisted the Alabama Attorney General's Office to help resolve the standoff and is trying to avoid issuing a subpoena, though she noted the Legislature has given her office that authority and she would use it if necessary. Riddle said the document delays are slowing the audit but that she still expects to meet an October reporting deadline.

The audit originated from a bill filed by Sen. Larry Stutts, R-Tuscumbia, to have the examiners' office investigate conditions in Alabama's prisons; ADOC and the examiners' office reached an agreement to conduct the audit administratively, making the bill moot. Riddle's office had planned to audit a single facility but said it decided to first review ADOC's overall operations, since findings at one prison would be of limited use without accounting for practices set "from here in Montgomery." Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, said the completed audit will provide "the momentum, and the evidence necessary, to overhaul the Department of Corrections" and floated a subsequent forensic audit of the agency's finances.