Throw away the key: Under Dahlstrom, innocent Alaskans weren’t allowed to make bail during Covid

Joe Smith was arrested, processed, and arraigned in the summer of 2020. His week went from normal to something out of a Franz Kafka novel after he entered the state prison system.

It was at the height of the Covid pandemic and although Smith could make his nominal bail of $2,500 without any trouble, he was instead thrown into a medical segregation ward of the Alaska prison system, told that he may have come into contact with someone who had Covid, and thus was denied any ability to make bail.

Smith, whose name has been changed because his case is still pending, said he was in a prison cell designed for two men, but which had eight men crowded into it. They were in the same situation — medical isolation because they may have been in contact with someone who had Covid. Some had even been released by the judge on their own recognizance but were imprisoned anyway by the Department of Corrections.

Smith was held for four days, and when his personal attorney called to find out what happened to him, the prison system, run by then Commissioner Nancy Dahlstrom, said they didn’t have him and they didn’t know where he was.

One of his best friends called the Anchorage detention facility, ready to post the bail for him, and asked where he was. He was told the same thing: The Department of Corrections simply didn’t know. Must Read Alaska verified this information with the friend, who is known to the author.

While in that crowded cell, Smith, a successful businessman, wrote a habeas corpus — a legal demand that he be brought before a judge or into court to secure his release or show what lawful grounds the Department of Corrections had for his detention. He gave it to a prison guard … but the Alaska Court System never received it. It went into the black hole of the prison system.

Smith gave Must Read Alaska permission to tell his story. He was prompted to reach out after reading about how then-Commissioner Dahlstrom forced prisoners in 2021 to get Covid shots, or she would deny them the right to see their family members or their lawyers.

Smith, a leading figure known to many in Alaska, said he would sign an affidavit to back up his claims that his constitutional rights were violated by the Department of Corrections.

Smith said it wasn’t just him; at least 20 other men he met during those four days also had their constitutional rights violated by the Department of Corrections in the same manner.

Smith has no other prior violations except a couple of speeding tickets, and this has also been verified by this author. The experience was eye-opening for him. During four days of being “disappeared” by the Department of Corrections, he had no way of knowing if he’d ever see freedom again.

While Smith, who says he is confident he will be exonerated once his case is heard, was shocked at how quickly life can become Kafkaesque in the prison system.

Dahlstrom, meanwhile, has since become lieutenant governor and is now running for Congress on a conservative platform.