Alabama state prisons failing to protect inmates from abuse -Justice Dept

The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday accused Alabama's state prisons of violating male inmates' Constitutional rights by failing to protect them from violence and sexual abuse.

In a letter to Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, prosecutors and the country's top civil rights law enforcement official said they had evidence that the state was violating prisoners' Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment. They ordered the prison system to correct the problems within 49 days or the state could face a federal civil rights lawsuit. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Bernadette Baum)