In a remarkably unusual move, House Republicans overruled a committee chair and forced the cancellation of a hearing on deaths in Alaska prisons, where the grandfather of a man who died while in state custody was set to testify.
Big Lake Republican Rep. Kevin McCabe led the effort to cancel the hearing, arguing that it was improper for the committee to hear anything from anyone involved in an ongoing wrongful death lawsuit against the state. Specifically, he complained about the involvement of the ACLU of Alaska, which is currently involved in a suit against the state.
“I think participating in any conversation about this subject may unintentionally make us witnesses to the ongoing legal proceedings,” he said. “Given the legal implications surrounding this situation, I object to proceeding on this matter until the legal proceedings have been resolved.”
The ACLU of Alaska is working with the family of James Rider, a man who died in state custody in 2022, as they pursue a wrongful death lawsuit against the state. A separate lawsuit has also been filed against the state by the family of Mark Christopher Cook Jr., a 27-year-old man who died in prison custody in early 2023. His family argues his death was preventable and a result of systemic failures on the part of the Department of Corrections. His grandfather, Tom Abel, was also scheduled to testify.
The state has seen an extremely high rate of Alaskans dying in custody, with 18 people who died in 2022 and 13 who died in 2023. Five have died so far in 2024. Many of those people were not in custody for committing a crime but were on protective custody holds. The ACLU of Alaska has accused the state of intentionally underreporting the number of deaths in the state and, as part of its lawsuit, is seeking a review of state policies and other changes.
Legislative rules discourage legislators from debating or discussing matters that are currently under litigation. Soldotna Republican Rep. Justin Ruffridge said he couldn’t support going forward with the presentation because the lawsuit is seeking policy changes.
“If it was compensatory damages alone, I think it would be fine to move forward,” he said.
It doesn’t appear that the objections to the hearing were lodged until the meeting started or very shortly before it did. The meeting had been publicly noticed since last Thursday afternoon, and McCabe’s objection caught committee chair Rep. CJ McCormick, D-Bethel, by surprise.
The committee’s Republican members overruled Rep. McCormick’s decision to proceed with the hearing, casting a 4-3 vote to halt the meeting. The no votes included Reps. McCabe, Ruffridge, Tom McKay, and Thomas Baker. McCormick was joined by minority Reps. Rebecca Himschoot and Donna Mears attempted to continue the meeting.
Once the outcome of the vote was clear, several people who had been set to testify promptly got up and exited the hearing room.
Before ending the meeting, Rep. McCormick said he was frustrated by the outcome and said it was a prime example of why the state is struggling to make progress with inmate deaths.
“I want to personally apologize to the ACLU for the proceedings this morning,” he said. “I want to apologize to the individuals who called in. I want to apologize on behalf of the Alaska State Legislature for articulating and showing citizens of the state how incredibly difficult it is to eliminate the crisis that we’re facing with deaths in our correctional systems. I’ve failed you today as chair of this committee. I didn’t expect my vice chair to do this, but some stuff just happens sometimes that you don’t expect in this line of work … I want to apologize that we’re failing citizens of this state and allowing them to die in our custody.”
During a long break following McCabe’s objection, Gavel Alaska cameras captured the meeting room screens that had an ACLU presentation queued up reading “Addressing Deaths in Department of Corrections Custody and Proposed Solutions.”
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
