Alabama: Mobile Metro Jail guard Robert Aaron Small was fired and arrested for assault on June 27, 2024, one day after he allegedly used excessive force against an unnamed detainee. WKRG in Mobile said that the guard had worked at the lockup since 2019. Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch did not provide details of what happened but promised zero tolerance for “conduct unbecoming of our Corrections Officers towards any inmate.”
Alabama: Three state Department of Corrections (DOC) guards were arrested in July 2024, beginning with St. Clair Correctional Facility guard Jasmine Miller, 34, who charged on July 1, 2024, with using her office for personal gain, the Birmingham News reported. Miller resigned from St. Clair Correctional Facility and was booked into St. Clair County Jail, from which she was released on a $1,500 bond. Two days later, on July 3, 2024, Fountain Correctional Facility guard Shaquasia Craig, 33, was arrested and fired after she was caught with 50 Black and Mild cigars and two bottles of Gatorade laced with alcohol, WEAR in Pensacola said. She was being held at Escambia County Jail on charges of promoting prison contraband. Then on July 31, 2024, Limestone Correctional Facility guard Monica Blakeney, 35, was arrested and charged with promoting prison contraband, WAFF in Huntsville said. She had earlier been found at work with methamphetamine, and she resigned after her arrest. She was booked into Limestone County Jail and released on a $5,000 bond..
Arizona: Former state DOC guard Ramon Godoy, 33, was indicted on July 17, 2024, for the alleged sexual assault of an unnamed subordinate guard at Lewis State Prison, the Arizona Republic reported. The incident occurred at the lockup on July 7, 2024, when Godoy ordered the subordinate to meet him in the prison gym, proceeding there to put her in a chokehold and sexually assault her, ignoring her cries of “No!” and “Stop!” The victim then contacted police, whose subsequent investigation led to Godoy’s confession; he also admitted receiving previous complaints at work about groping and making sexual comments to fellow employees. It was unclear whether DOC knew of those or investigated them. It was also unclear when and how his employment ended. He was booked into the Maricopa County Jail on a $75,000 bond.
Arkansas: DOC prisoner Nathan Boursh, 42, was electrocuted while performing grounds work at Benton Work Release Unit on July 12, 2024, KFSM in Fort Smith reported. He was rushed to a local hospital and pronounced dead a short while later. The fatal accident occurred when Boursh, who was serving a six-­year term for a 2020 drug possession conviction, reportedly used a metal pole found near a pond in an attempt to free a fishing lure wrapped around a power line.
California: The Sacramento Bee reported that one of two state prisoners on the run nearly 13 years was recaptured in New York City on May 20, 2024. Eduardo Hernandez, then 29, was just over six years into a 13-­year sentence for carjacking in Los Angeles County when he “walked away” from Delta Conservation Camp in Suisun City in November 2011. The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said that fellow escapee Jose Padilla was about six months into a four-­year term for domestic abuse, also in L.A. County. He is still on the run. Another more recent escapee from the firefighting camp, James Xiong, 36, was recaptured on May 26, 2024, after a month on the run, CBS News reported. He was serving a six-­year term for a 2015 robbery and carjacking conviction in Fresno County, plus another six-­year term for a 2022 conviction for a Nevada County grand theft committed after he was paroled in 2019.
California: Prisoners blamed a week-­long lockdown at San Quentin State Prison on undercooked boiled chicken served on July 3, 2024, Business Insider reported. A statement from California Correctional Healthcare Services confirmed that “a potential gastrointestinal illness” had resulted in reduced “programming and visitation,” but no other details were provided. Chicken was served again on July 9, 2024, but prisoner Aaron Ramzy, 34, didn’t eat it. “I was scared,” he admitted.
California: The Los Angeles Times reported that former federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) guard Darrell Wayne Smith, 55, was handed fresh charges on July 26, 2024, of sexually abusing prisoners at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Dublin—where so many staffers have been accused of sexual predation that the lockup became known as the “Rape Club”. Smith’s new 15-­count indictment supersedes one issued before his May 2023 arrest at his new Florida home; he was the eighth prison staffer charged in the scandal, which has resulted in convictions and federal prison sentences for the other seven—including former Warden Ray Garcia, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Apr. 2024, p.60.] Victims called Smith “dirty Dick” and said he was the worst of the abusers, recalling how he often sat in the darkened prison and ate bananas while watching them undress.
Canada: Quebec’s maximum-­security Port Cartier Institution hastily evacuated all 223 prisoners and 70 guards on June 21, 2024, as wildfires closed within 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) of the prison, CBC News reported. Guards’ union chief Mike Bolduc decried planning failures in the evacuation, blaming Correctional Service Canada (CSC) for a shortage of handcuffs that left prisoners in self-­locking wrist fasteners some managed to break before arriving at prisons receiving them in Donnacona and Sainte-­Anne-­des-­Plaines. But prison Executive Director Martin Foucher pushed back, insisting that the operation was “planned” and “very safe.” About 1,000 residents evacuated from the village near the lockup were cleared to return on June 24, 2024; however, CSC did not say when Port Cartier prisoners would return.
Connecticut: State DOC guard Christopher Carlson, 33, was charged with third-­degree assault on June 21, 2024, for allegedly striking an unnamed McDougall-­Walker Correctional Institution prisoner ten months before. WTNH in New Haven said the incident unfolded in August 2023, when Carlson and fellow guards responded to a “code blue” fight between prisoners. After reviewing surveillance video, they identified one of the prisoners and attempted to move him to a Restrictive Housing Unit. That’s when he said they threw him to the ground and someone punched him in the face; investigating state cops later identified that was Carlson. He has been on leave from the prison.
Florida: State DOC guard Rance Park, 37, was arrested at home by Lake City cops on July 7, 2024, after allegedly threatening his wife and her child with a gun, WCJB in Gainesville reported. A neighbor called 911 saying that Park accused the unnamed woman of “cheating” and struck her, threatening to kill her and the child before shooting at her. During the incident, he apparently took time to compose a Facebook post complaining that his sleep had been disturbed when the neighbor called police. He was booked into the Columbia County Jail and charged with attempted homicide, battery, aggravated assault and child abuse, plus a weapons violation and obstruction charges. A LinkedIn profile for Park says he is an Environmental Health and Safety Sergeant at Columbia Correctional Institution.
Georgia: A detainee held at the Washington County Jail escaped from a hospital where he’d been transferred for treatment on July 16, 2024—only to be found hours later hiding in a tree across the street. George Vincent, 49, was arrested on July 10, 2024, for attempting to smuggle weapons into Washington State Prison (WSP), WMAZ in Macon reported. He was transferred to Washington County Hospital for unspecified treatment, and when guards removed his restraints, Vincent made a break for it, according to County Sheriff Joel Cochran. A K-­9 dog alerted his deputies to the tree where they found Vincent hiding. At the same hospital on April 23, 2024, WSP prisoner Jacob Henson, 31, was being treated for injuries sustained in a fight with a fellow prisoner when he wrestled a pepper-­spray canister from one guard and used it on another, who then fatally shot the prisoner. At the time, Henson was serving an eight-­year prison term for a string of vehicle hijackings in July and August 2018, including three motorcycles, three ATVs, five trucks and a car—plus a child’s dirt bike that he stole and wrecked while attempting to flee cops. A resident eventually captured him, holding him at gunpoint until police arrived, Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace said at the time.
Georgia: AP News reported that state prisoner Juan Carlos Ramirez Bibiano, 27, died on July 20, 2024, after guards left him in an outdoor cell without shade or water in 96-­degree heat for five hours. Telfair State Prison Warden Andrew McFarlane had reportedly ordered guards to ensure prisoners were kept hydrated before they put Remirez Bibiano in an outdoor “rec cell” around 10:00 a.m. The temperature by that time was already 86 degrees Fahrenheit, and it climbed another 10 degrees higher still before nurses found the prisoner around 3:00 p.m. lying naked in a puddle of his own excrement and vomit. They recorded his internal body temperature at 107 degrees before emergency personnel transported him to a hospital, where he died later that night of heart and lung failure caused by exposure to excessive heat. His mother, Norma Bibiano, has reportedly retained Atlanta attorney Jeff Filipovits to file suit against DOC over her son’s death.
Greece: Graffiti carved into the floor of a Corinth building over 1,600 years ago was likely left by prisoners, according to research published in the journal Hesperia on June 19, 2024. The study’s author, University of Copenhagen archeologist Matthew Larsen, conceded it was a rare find—almost no jails survive from the Roman era, and little is known about what they looked like or how they operated—but he became convinced the site adjacent to the city’s ancient forum once held prisoners, who left behind messages like “Lord, make them die an awful death” and “Godbearer, repay Marinos, the one who threw us in here and made us spend winter.”
Louisiana: Former BOP guard Samantha Harp, 37, was found guilty by a jury on July 10, 2024, of smuggling contraband to a prisoner at FCI-­Oakdale in March 2020 and lying about it to federal investigators. KPLC in Lake Charles said that the investigators found calls and texts she exchanged with the unnamed prisoner’s outside contacts to arrange payment via CashApp, though the guard insisted she didn’t even know what that was. She didn’t convince them or a jury, so the now-­fired guard faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine up to $250,000.
Louisiana: Beauregard Parish Jail guard Thomas Noble, 30, was fired and arrested on July 16, 2024, for using “unapproved control techniques” while handling an unnamed detainee, who was wearing restraints at the time. KALB in Alexandria said that Noble was charged with battery and malfeasance in office after the incident, which happened on July 8, 2024. Sheriff Mark Herford found it “very disappointing that one of our deputies would act in an inappropriate manner towards a restrained inmate.” Days later, on July 20, 2024, Tangipahoa Parish Jail guard Jaden Lamark, 20, was fired and arrested for getting into a fight with detainee Sanchez Harold, 36, on July 4, 2024. WDSU in New Orleans said that Harold allegedly threw an unidentified liquid at the guard, who then entered the detainee’s cell and beat him. Both were charged with battery. Sheriff Gerald Sticker also charged Lamark with malfeasance in office.
Maryland: She won’t face any prison time, but former Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) dietary officer Ajee X. Myers, 29, must toe the line while serving a three-­year probated sentence for misconduct in office handed down on July 16, 2024, according to the Baltimore Sun, which noted one year of her probation will be supervised. As PLN reported, Myers confessed in January 2024 to having a months-­long sexual affair with a prisoner at Maryland Correctional Institute for Women in Jessup, even threatening another prisoner she feared was a “romantic rival” for the unnamed woman’s affections. [See: PLN, Apr. 2024, p.61.] At her sentencing in Anne Arrundel County Circuit Court, Judge Donna Schaefer refused to put the errant guard behind bars but warned Myers to “do what you’re supposed to do, and you won’t have to come back.”
Michigan: Former Saginaw County Jail guard Angelina Young was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery on June 27, 2024, for shooting a fellow guard in the back with her Taser, WJRT in Flint reported. Young was fired after an investigation into the March 2024 incident, which unfolded inside the jail control booth. She claimed it was a joke, but surveillance video captured her unnamed victim as she fired the weapon at him and he fell from his chair to the floor. No serious injury resulted, but Undersheriff Mike Gomez said, “I was angry that that took place because they train [with the weapons]. They know these aren’t toys.” Young remains free on personal recognizance bond.
Mississippi: After two Claiborne County Detention Center detainees escaped on July 5, 2024, and ABC News requested copies of surveillance video recordings, a deputy of Sheriff Edward “Moose” Goods admitted that the surveillance system was broken and “had not been accessible for a few weeks.” As a result, Chief Dep. Christy Sykes said, her office relied on “physical evidence and witness statements” to determine that Dezarrious Johnson, 18, and Tyrekennel Collins, 24, escaped through the ceiling and jumped from the roof. Both were apprehended the next day at an abandoned home; they are being held on murder charges from other counties.
Missouri: Scott County Sheriff Wes Drury fired an unnamed guard from the county jail on July 26, 2024, after an investigation into the escape of detainee Corvin Turner, 30. KFVS in Cape Girardeau reported that Turner “walked out of the jail” on July 3, 2024, and was not located and returned by Drury’s deputies for seven days. Drury said that Turner’s older brother, who was also detained at the lockup, was scheduled for release and blamed the younger Turner for taking part in a deception that led to his mistaken release in his brother’s place. As PLN reported, the same sort of mix-­up led to the accidental release of detainee Billy Partington from Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County Prison in January 2024, though it was his younger brother, Drake Partington, who had posted bail. Although it took jailers three days to notice their mistake, County Manager Rommilda Crocamo was apparently forgiving, chalking it up to human error. [See: PLN, Apr. 2024, p.61.]
New Hampshire: It took nearly three years for Valley News to unearth details reported on July 15, 2024, that state Rep. Jonathan Stone (R-­Sullivan), 50, was fired from his job at Southern State Correctional Facility in neighboring Vermont in 2021 after subjecting minority co-­workers to a schoolyard full of risible slurs, including “cunt,” “faggot,” “retards” and “wetback.” Confronted by his DOC superiors after a gay employee quit in disgust, Stone shrugged: “You should see me when I really get going.” The Sullivan County chair for the reelection campaign of former Pres. Donald J. Trump (R), Stone was fired from an earlier post at the Claremont Police Dept. in 2006, the records also revealed, after an investigation was opened into his allegedly inappropriate relationship with a teenage girl, to which Stone responded with threats to kill his chief, rape the chief’s wife and children, and go on a mass shooting spree.
New Jersey: New Jersey Advance Media reported that former state DOC guard Efrin Wade, 36, pleaded guilty on July 17, 2024, to taking $14,000 in bribes from an undercover FBI informant to smuggle tobacco and cellphones into Essex County Correctional Facility in January and February 2023. As PLN reported, Wade and his girlfriend, Yairisa Lizardo, 29, were arrested in March 2023, after Wade was found at work with contraband cigarettes and cigars. [See: PLN, May 2023, p.63.] Her charges are still pending. He will be sentenced on November 19, 2024.
New York: Escaped Rikers Island detainee James Mossetty, 35, was recaptured on July 16, 2024, the New York Times reported. He escaped while awaiting transport to the lockup from New York City’s Bellevue Hospital on June 26, 2024. But it was unclear how Mossetty, who had just undergone psychiatric treatment, was not handcuffed when he slipped away from guards and broke from a secure loading area, shedding his orange jail uniform as he ran across lanes of traffic on Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive and made his escape on a city bus. With a history of mental health problems—he once attempted suicide by drinking drain cleaner—Mossetty was homeless when jailed for a 2021 assault. He was out on $3,000 bail when he stiffed a taxi driver of a $36 fare in 2023, and responding cops found meth on him, sending him back to jail. Speaking of the city’s beleaguered DOC, his brother said: “They’ve got to get it together.”
New York: State Department of Corrections and Community Services (DOCCS) guard Melissa Dixon, 30, was fired and arrested on June 27, 2024, for allegedly taking bribes to smuggle drug paraphernalia and weapons to Riverview Correctional Facility prisoners, at least two of whom she was also having sex with, according to State Police. WNY in Watertown said that those were the conclusions from an investigation state cops began on May 22, 2024, on referral from DOCCS’s own Office of Special Investigations.
New York: After a brief escape from the Chautauqua County Jail, detainee Eric Ryals, 36, was back in custody on July 11, 2024, the Buffalo News reported. He was being held on $100,000 bond after an arrest on an out-­of-­state warrant on June 22, 2024, which was triggered when cops received a report about an attempted armed robbery and caught up with Ryals after he fled into a nearby woods. The day of his escape, he somehow gained access to the roof, running from pursuing guards and jumping to the street below. After treatment at Erie County Medical Center-­Jamestown, he was returned to the jail.
North Dakota: After Ward County Jail detainee Matthew Richards, 21, allegedly refused to return his lunch tray on July 6, 2024, he then assaulted responding guards, injuring two of them. KFYR in Bismark said that Richards hit one guard in the face with the tray and broke the nose of another who came to assist the first. In total Richards is accused of attacking four guards at the lockup, where he is being held after allegedly threatening neighbors and brandishing a gun at responding cops.
Ohio: Though former CoreCivic guard Ciara Golden, 31, pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle marijuana into Northeast Ohio Correctional Center (NOCC), she avoided prison time at sentencing on July 16, 2024, WKBN in Youngstown reported. Citing concerns over who would care for her 7-­year-­old daughter, Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony D’Apolito sentenced her instead to probation for the foiled smuggling attempt at NOCC, which is operated under contract for the U.S. Marshals Service.
Ohio: Former Marion Correctional Institution prisoner Hiram Melendez, 61, had three years added to his sentence on July 17, 2024, for assaulting an unnamed guard at the prison in 2019. The Marion Star reported that he had been locked up since 1993 serving a 15-­year-­minimum term for murder when he became enraged at the guard and struck her repeatedly with his fists. Quick intervention by another guard and other prisoners reportedly limited her injuries to facial bruising, for which she was treated at a hospital and released. He is now at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, according to the state Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (DRC).
Ohio: When an unnamed Cuyahoga County Jail guard opened the cell door for him to shower on July 24, 2024, detainee De’Lawnte Hardy, 24, reportedly ran from the cell. Fellow guards responded, and a struggle ensued, during which Hardy was pepper-­sprayed and an unnamed guard suffered unspecified injuries, WKYC in Cleveland reported. Hardy allegedly shot his grandmother in the back of the head with her own gun at her home on June 28, 2024, before fleeing on his grandfather’s bicycle. Beatrice Porter, 63, died of those injuries on July 4, 2024. That same day, when Hardy was tracked to a nearby residence by police, he attempted to flee on the bike, this time armed with the gun and two swords. In an exchange of gunfire with cops, he allegedly shot and killed Off. Jamison Ritter, 27. After his arrest, Hardy was held on a $5 million bond that was increased to $10 million before the altercation at the jail, after which his bond was revoked.
Ohio: Advance Media Ohio reported that an investigation by the state Highway Patrol led to the indictment on July 12, 2024, of DRC Special Operations Lt. David Pearson, 44. He faces a first-­degree misdemeanor charge of negligent homicide in Pickaway County Common Pleas Court for the fatal shooting of Southern Ohio Correctional Facility guard Lt. Rodney Osborne, 43, on April 9, 2024. DRC Director Annette Chambers-­Smith said that the death of the 13-­year veteran guard was apparently “a tragic accident” which occurred during a training exercise at the Corrections Training Academy firing range. Pearson remains on administrative leave awaiting arraignment.
Oklahoma: State DOC guard Cpl. Andrew Freppon was killed on July 14, 2024, when the car he was driving to work at John Lilley Correctional Center was stuck on U.S. Highway 62 by a prison transport, which fellow Cpl. Robert Sumner was driving to Oklahoma University Medical Center to work a hospital shift, KOKH in Oklahoma City reported. Both guards had just graduated from the DOC academy in November 2023.
Pennsylvania: Lancaster County Prison detainee Jamail Robertson, 27, will have at least 2-­1/2 years added to a 2022 robbery sentence he was serving after pleading guilty but mentally ill on June 27, 2024, to charges that he assaulted a jail guard, plus a local cop and a security guard at a hospital. WGAL in Lancaster said that was the first assault in the April 2023 incident; he also attacked a Lancaster cop who was transporting him, plus a guard upon his return to the lockup.
South Carolina: Former Turbeville Correctional Institution guard Kiefer Ren Gibson, 20, was charged on June 26, 2024, with criminal sexual conduct with an inmate, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and criminal conspiracy, WIS in Columbia reported. Gibson was transferred to Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center after she was caught trying to smuggle 174 grams of marijuana to the unnamed prisoner on October 12, 2023. By that point, DOC investigators learned, she had been carrying on a sexual affair with him for weeks—even tattooing his name on her body and confessing in texts that she might be pregnant.
South Carolina: Three guards at Berkeley County’s Hill-­Finklea Detention Center were arrested in the alleged sexual assaults of detainees and fellow employees, beginning on June 17, 2024. That day, according to FITSNews, agents of the state Law Enforcement Division (SLED) arrested Avery Richard Smith, 23, for allegedly forcing himself on an unnamed detainee nine days earlier and making her touch his genitals. He resigned two days later. The day after that, on June 20, 2024, his direct supervisors, Christoper Dozier III, 43, and Frankie Levar Snider, 45, were fired for failing to intervene when Smith assaulted two unnamed co-­workers three weeks earlier. Dozier allegedly witnessed one incident and laughed about it. Both were charged with misconduct in office and freed from jail on $30,000 bonds. Smith remained behind bars. Sheriff Duane Lewis awarded him Deputy of the Year for 2023, even though SLED investigators traced complaints from co-­workers about Smith’s unwanted sexual advances back to September 2022. The credulous Sheriff then said, “I hope this does not impede the trust the public has with us.”
South Carolina: Orangeburg/Calhoun Detention Center guard Tatyana Izlar, 26, was fired and arrested on July 11, 2024, after she admitted taking unspecified payments to smuggle contraband to unnamed detainees, WCSC in Charleston reported. Izlar is a Denmark citizen, and it was unclear how she got her job at the jail. Deputies of Sheriff Leroy Ravenell searched her car and found marijuana and a cellphone.
Spain: Released after 14 years from Madrid V Penitentiary Center, former prisoner Jose Perez did what many do in the 21st century: He left a review on Google. But he gave the lockup only one star, according to The Mirror, apparently because high walls and the guard staff foiled four escape-­attempts he made while incarcerated. Perez even named an accomplice in those attempts, Johnny el Mazas, recalling how “the last time they caught us climbing the wall, the son of a bitch tower guard hit us so hard with his baton that we didn’t sleep all night.” Still, Perez rated the prison “good” because “drugs were easy to get in and there weren’t many rapes.” However, a three-­meter-­high wall “puts the inmates in danger because it’s a risk,” he said, adding: “That’s why I give it a bad rating.”
Texas: Hidalgo County Jail guard Sebastian Rodriguez, 19, was fired on June 27, 2024, after police in Pharr arrested him for an alleged off-­duty sexual assault of a child, according to KRGV in Weslaco. The office of Sheriff J.E. “Eddie” Guerra said the former guard was released on $10,000 bond.
United Kingdom: The Daily Mail reported that former HMP Wandsworth guard Linda de Sousa Abreu, 31, was arrested while trying to board a flight to Spain from London’s Heathrow Airport on June 28, 2024. That same day, Prison Service officials fired her and charged her with misconduct in office for having sex with a prisoner—while his cellmate made a video of them. As the clip circulated over social media, officials discovered that the guard and her husband, MMA fighter Nathan Richardson, 29, were making sexually explicit videos and selling access to them on an OnlyFans channel, where Abreu used the alias “Linda La Madre.” Still lugging her packed suitcase, she made her initial court appearance on the charges on July 1, 2024, later pleading guilty on July 29, 2024. Her co-­star in the explicit clip, prisoner Linton Weirich, 36, has a pregnant girlfriend at home, according to LBC News; he is serving a 54-­month term for a home robbery worth £65,000 (about $83,295 USD).
Virginia: Eastern Shore Regional Jail guard Hector Luis Rosa, Jr., 28, was fired on July 8, 2024, and arrested the following day on a felony count of “object sexual penetration,” another of “abduction with intent to defile” plus a misdemeanor sexual abuse count, Shore Daily News reported. He had worked at the lockup since 2018 but went on leave on April 5, 2024, when the allegations were filed with the office of Northampton County Sheriff David L. Doughty, Jr. State cops then investigated, leading to the charges. He was freed on a $3,500 secured bond.
Washington: Former state DOC guard Emmanuel Perez, 48, was convicted on June 25, 2024, of killing his civilian roommate, Terrance Moore, 35, in June 2021. The Everett Herald reported that jurors found Perez guilty of second-­degree murder for the fatal shooting, which capped a 14-­hour marathon of drinking and meth use by the two in their shared apartment. A 14-­year DOC veteran, Perez worked at Monroe Correctional Institution at the time. He was placed on unpaid administrative leave after his arrest, and his current employment status was unclear.