EXCLUSIVE: Alabama prison warden who told Daniel Williams' family he had died of a drug overdose is the subject of more than 40 lawsuits alleging brutality and failure to protect inmates

The Alabama prison warden who told inmate Daniel Williams' family that the 22-year-old died of a 'drug overdose,' has been the subject of more than 40 lawsuits alleging brutality and a routine failure to protect prisoners in his care, DailyMail.com can reveal.

And in a chilling echo of what Williams's family allege their son endured – they say he was beaten, tortured and raped for days – one of the dozens of complaints viewed by DailyMail.com accuses Joseph Headley, 62, of failing to protect a prisoner who was repeatedly 'threatened,', 'surrounded by several inmates armed with prison made weapons' and ultimately seriously assaulted.

Williams, an engaged father with an infant daughter, was just two weeks away from the end of a 12-month sentence for second degree theft in Staton Correctional Facility in Elmore, Alabama, when he was found unresponsive in his cell, October 22.

He was declared brain dead on arrival at Jackson Hospital, taken off life support November 5 and died four days later, the very day of his scheduled release.

Warden Headley informed his family that the young man had suffered an overdose. But, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, a nurse told them Williams had been 'kidnapped, bound, assaulted and sold out' by another inmate for, 'two to three days'.

A GoFundMe set up by his family to cover funeral and legal fees has so far raised more than $33,000 with a target goal of $50,000.

Now, DailyMail.com has uncovered a litany of legal complaints lodged against married-father-of-two Headley.

The suits, filed in both federal and district court, stretch back more than a decade and encompass violations allegedly perpetrated by him during his tenure as warden of three different Alabama prisons: Ventress, St Clair and Staton.

Inmate Sharone Fuquan Goodwin, currently serving 60 years for first degree robbery, was a prisoner in St Clair Correctional Facility when he filed his complaint against Headley in 2013.

In allegations that are typical of many reviewed by DailyMail.com, Goodwin accused the warden of 'failure to protect [and] failure to act on his knowledge of present and…substantial risk of serious harm'.

According to Goodwin, an officer assigned to his unit called 'a code for assistance' when he noticed several inmates surrounding Goodwin, carrying prison made weapons.

Goodwin stated that he informed two further officers that he was 'threatened by several inmates' in a drugs dispute. He claimed that Headley was 'already aware of an ongoing enemy situation but failed to take the appropriate steps to transfer him.'.

According to Goodwin he made repeated requests to the warden to be transferred but was ignored despite the danger of the situation having been 'validated'. Ultimately an inmate tricked open his cell door and slashed Goodwin.

In common with many of the complaints lodged by prisoners without legal representation, Goodwin's was ultimately dismissed by the court on a technicality – on this occasion for failure to file in a timely fashion.

Phillip Dwayne Aaron is a lifer currently serving out his time for murder in Bullock Correctional Facility, Alabama.

He was a prisoner in Staton when, he alleges, he was severely beaten by correctional officers leaving him with broken bones that required pinning and lacerations that required stitches.

He filed his suit against Headley on February 8 last year – the very week that, his attorney pointed out, another inmate was killed by a fellow prisoner in the institution.

In the damning complaint Headley is accused of being 'deliberately indifferent' to conditions that pose 'a substantial risk of serious harm' to prisoners both from other prisoners and the officers tasked with their care.

Echoing Goodwin's allegations that Headley failed to act when presented with inmate-on-inmate violence, Aaron asserts that the warden 'routinely failed to take any corrective measure or punitive actions against corrections officers who violated prisoners' rights'.

As warden of Staton, the suit states, Headley, 'knew there was a high incidence of officer-on-prisoner violence. That was likely to result in serious harm, even death, to an inmate if left unchecked.'

Indeed, in December 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) had initiated an action under the Civil Rights of Individualized Persons Act (CRIPA) against Alabama Department of Corrections.

The DOJ found there to be an 'unconstitutional level of violence from inmate-on-inmate attacks' and a 'pattern of excessive force' by corrections officers inflicted on inmates at Staton and other correctional facilities in the state.

But according to Aaron's suit, two years on, despite this action, 'violence at Staton continues unabated'.

Aaron's suit alleged that Headley presided over a brutal and brutalizing regime in which there were no consequences for wardens or officers who violated prisoners' rights. His case was ultimately settled out of court.

The statistics set down in the DOJ's July 2020 Investigation of Alabama's State Prisons for Men, reviewed by DailyMail.com, are shocking and seem to support Aaron's claims.

From 2016 through 2018 the violence due to overcrowding and understaffing at Staton was 20.5 times the national average.

The DOJ report is unequivocal in findings that speak directly to the fate that Williams allegedly suffered.

The report states, 'Alabama routinely violates the constitutional rights of prisoners housed in Alabama's prisons by failing to protect them from prisoner-on-prisoner violence and prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse, and by failing to provide safe and sanitary conditions.'

In addition, the department found, chronic overcrowding led to violence that escalated and prompted frequent uses of 'excessive force' by correctional officers.

It states, 'Uses of force are so commonplace in Alabama's prisons that officers, even supervisors, watch other officers brutally beating prisoners and do not intervene…In short, in Alabama's prisons, cruel treatment of prisoners…is common and de-escalation techniques are regularly ignored.'

In fact, Aaron's suit alleges, Headley 'fostered' a culture where 'unprovoked and unnecessary vicious attacks' were commonplace and failed to prevent 'the extraordinary violence against prisoners at Staton.'

According to the DOJ's report into the Alabama system it is practically set up to allow any such failure to slide.

It states, 'The internal, prison-by-prison handling of findings of unlawful force makes it difficult to track potentially abusive officers who transfers to other prisons.'

Headley has been warden across at least three correctional facilities in Alabama in the past ten years.

The report goes on, 'And because the wardens' decisions to take corrective action are not reviewed, ADOC's system enables any warden who wants to avoid leadership scrutiny to do so by refusing to refer incidents to I&I (Intelligence & Investigations Division).'

The ADOC is investigating Williams's death. His father, Terry, mother, Tammy and stepmother Taylor Bostic, have all spoken out against the heinous violence allegedly inflicted on their son.

His sister Brittany posted on social media that she held her bruised and bloodied brother's hand, nursed him and watched him gasp for air.

'I'd take your place instantly, so you could have more time with your kids,' she wrote.

Despite his run-ins with the law, Daniel's fiancée Amber Williams told local television station WMTV 13 last week, he was a devoted father.

None of Williams's loved ones accept the suggestion that he died of a drug overdose.

Instead, his father Terry last week revealed it to be the focus of his final furious conversation with Headley.

Terry said, 'I called the warden, and I cussed him. I said, ''Dude, you know this is not an overdose case? You know exactly what happened. How is this crap going to happen like this?''

'Well, it's under investigation right now. And that's the last time I ever talked to the warden.'

The Alabama Department of Corrections told DailyMail.com that its official policy is not to comment on matters pending litigation. 

Messages left for Warden Headley were not returned.