Alabama: A former Blount County Jail guard received a decade behind bars on October 21, 2025, for a brutal assault that was captured on security video, according to WVTM in Birmingham. Joseph Ray Snow, 45, was sentenced for assaulting detainee Jonathan Calloway in 2022. Calloway, who was arrested for public intoxication, made a crude gesture at Snow, who retaliated by slamming the detainee’s head against a wall, throwing a chair, and returning to kick Calloway in the face while another guard held him down. The beating left Calloway with a broken nose and missing teeth. During sentencing, prosecutors presented evidence of a prior video-­recorded assault by Snow on a female detainee that had only recently been uncovered. 

Alabama: According to Advance Local Media, Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch faced backlash for a Halloween display outside his home, with skeletons in stereotypical Hispanic attire posed as if climbing a fence to escape chasing skeletons labeled ICE, or federal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. By October 24, 2025, the display was replaced with a tombstone that read “R.I.P Sense of Humor—From Beginning of Time to October 2025,” along with a skeleton in a skirt labeled “Karen.” As PLN reported, Burch’s Mobile Metro Jail counted six detainee deaths in six months from June 2023 to January 2024, also paying a $2.02 million sexual harassment settlement to female guards [See: PLN, May 2024, p.15.]

California: Yuba County Jail guard Matthew Babb was arrested on October 4, 2025, after allegedly using a fake medical appointment as a pretext to remove a detainee from the jail the day before and sexually assault her. According to KOVR in Sacramento, the unnamed victim reported that Babb, a guard since 2020, took her to Olivehurst and assaulted her, making stops at several other locations before and after. Babb was booked into Placer County Jail on suspicion of sexual activity with a prisoner and placed on administrative leave. 

Ecuador: According to CNN, a surge of violence in Ecuador’s Machala Detention Center left at least 31 prisoners dead on November 10, 2025, including 27 that officials said were killed by “asphyxiation” during a brutal gang retaliation. The bloodshed began when the breakaway Sao-­Box gang targeted the rival Los Lobos, who then retaliated, systematically asphyxiating Sao-­Box members inside shared cells—a tactic used “to avoid leaving signs of violence,” prison officials said. They did not say whether the prisoners were hanged. The massacre added more deaths to over 500 counted in Ecuador’s prisons since 2021, despite ongoing military deployment during what the government has declared a state of internal armed conflict.

Florida: Wearing the uniform shirt of a Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) guard, Angel Emilio Diez, 60—who does not work for DOC—was arrested on November 2, 2025, after he stole a Corvette from a Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino valet outside Fort Lauderdale. WPLG in Miami reported that Diez was quickly detained near the exit, where he was also caught attempting to discard a marijuana roach. He claimed to have bought the shirt at a Goodwill store. He faces charges including grand theft, falsely impersonating a guard, and trespassing.

Illinois: Nine days after escaping an Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice lockup, Johnell Lamont Smith, 18, was recaptured in Davenport, Iowa, on November 21, 2025. WQAC in Moline reported that Smith was one of three people arrested during a morning “surveillance operation.” The others were Tamier Mitchell, 22, and Tatiana Love, 30. Mitchell had been wanted on an outstanding warrant for “dominion/control of a firearm by a felon” and trafficking stolen weapons. Love was charged with being an accessory after the fact to the other crimes. Smith was sentenced to 30-­to-­35 years in prison in April for the fatal shooting a year earlier of Danny Taylor, 17, at his home in Milan. Smith had been incarcerated at the Illinois Youth Center in Harrisburg, but he was attending a program in Chicago when he escaped. 

Indiana: On October 30, 2025, Marion County Jail staff mistakenly released Darrell Austin, 28, instead of his identical twin brother, Daron Austin, telling WXIN in Indianapolis that it was an “administrative release error.” Darrell, whose charges included battery by bodily waste, was released instead of his brother due to confusion over their similar names and “nearly indistinguishable physical characteristics.” The mistaken release was discovered only when the twins’ uncle alerted jail staff. While the office of Sheriff Kerry Forestal cited the “highly unusual set of circumstances,” it was at least the third mistaken release in Marion County in two years.

Kentucky: A wrongful death lawsuit filed in State Circuit Court for Madison County on October 27, 2025, accused guards at the County jail of fatally Tasering Jonathan Mansfield, 44, a husband and father with no violent criminal background, following his arrest for public intoxication. According to WKYT in Lexington, Mansfield was also placed in a spit mask and a restraint chair before he went into cardiac arrest and died on October 10, 2025, at the University of Kentucky Hospital. The suit names former Cpt. James Hollins, who has since been fired, and Dep. Mikeal Burns, now suspended, along with 12 others, including more jail guards, emergency medical services employees and West Kentucky Correctional Healthcare staff. Doctors confirmed that Mansfield’s death was due to cardiac arrest induced by the multiple electroshock applications. 

Kentucky: Graves County jailer Billy Williams, 51, was arrested and charged with first-­degree promoting contraband and official misconduct on November 6, 2025, after he confessed to providing contraband to detainees or “Class D” short-­term state prisoners in exchange for bribes paid by their family members. WLEX in Lexington reported that an investigation began when staffers noticed suspicious activity at the County Restricted Custody Center in Mayfield, and Chief Jailer Kelli Elliott advised the Sheriff’s Office. A lightning-­fast criminal investigation followed, resulting in a search warrant for Williams’ home. He reportedly admitted to the scheme and was arrested within 10 hours of Elliott’s report. 

Louisiana: On November 3, 2025, two Arkansas women became the 37th and 38th people arrested for trying to smuggle contraband into the Federal Correctional Complex in Pollock, according to a count by KALB in Alexandria. The office of Grants Parish Sheriff Steve McCain identified the two as Delana Smith, 49, and Sabrina Pattengale, 54. Both were charged with possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute and taking contraband into a penal institution. Additionally, Smith was charged with distribution of marijuana, and Pattengale was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. No further details were provided.

Massachusetts: A former library coordinator at the Bristol County House of Correction and four others, including a convicted murderer, were charged with conspiracy in October 2025, in what County Sheriff Paul Heroux called the “largest alleged employee drug bust” in jail history. WBUR in Boston said that the scheme funneled thousands of dollars’ worth of K2 synthetic marijuana into the jail.Investigators allege that it was run by prisoner Joseph Housley, 25, using three non-­incarcerated co-­conspirators and the jail’s former librarian, Ginger Hook, 46; she was caught on surveillance video smuggling “legal paperwork” sprayed with K2. All were arraigned except for Housely, who is set for sentencing in December 2025 for murdering his father. 

Michigan: On September 23, 2025, a month after he was arrested and fired from his post, Saginaw County Jail guard Jeilon A. Banks, 26, was released, and a judge reduced his bond to $50,000 cash-­surety. Advance Local Media reported that Banks allegedly operated a drug smuggling ring that charged jail detainees a $1,000 fee per contraband delivery. He was caught accepting payment and receiving drugs intended for the jail and charged with delivering or manufacturing a controlled substance and conspiracy. He appeared before County District Judge Terry L. Clark on October 6, 2025, waiving his right to the hearing and moving his case to Circuit Court for trial. No trial date has yet been set. 

Michigan: Former state DOC guard Joshua Lee, 22, was arraigned on October 30, 2025, on four counts of second-­degree criminal sexual conduct, which were handed down for allegedly “engag[ing] in multiple sexual acts with several prisoners while working” at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, the Detroit Free Press reported. State Attorney General Dana Nessel (D), said the charges reflect a critical flaw in Michigan law: Because the statute fails to specifically address sexual penetration by guard staff, more severe first-­ and third-­degree criminal sexual conduct charges cannot be applied, even when penetration occurs. 

New Jersey: Hudson County Correctional Facility guard Marquis Santiago, 33, was arrested on October 14, 2025, for allegedly conspiring to distribute K2 synthetic cannabinoids inside the jail, the New York Observer reported. Jail detainee Francisco Salcedo, 44, was also arrested in the scheme. Both were charged with possession and conspiracy to distribute K2. Israel Rosado, 38, another jail detainee, and Alvin DeLeon, 31, a non-­incarcerated co-­conspirator, were also accused in the scheme and arrested. Rosado was charged with possessing K2, and DeLeon was charged with conspiracy to distribute. Santiago was previously arrested in July 2025 as part of an alleged cocaine dealing conspiracy that also resulted in the arrests of West New York Police Department (WNYPD) dispatcher Ileana Hernandez, 56, and retired WYNPD Det. Thomas Mannion, 60, CBS News reported at the time. Santiago was charged then with conspiracy to distribute the drug. The status of that charge was unclear. 

New Jersey: According to Advance Local Media, former state DOC guard Cortlen S. Flax, 37, was sentenced to five years in state prison without parole on October 31, 2025, for a 2017 assault on 61-­year-­old prisoner Julio Valdez at South Woods State Prison. As PLN reported, Flax was convicted in July of second-­degree official misconduct in the incident for striking Valdez in the head and rupturing his eardrum, then leaving him untreated for 13 hours. [See: PLN, Sept. 2025, p.63.] The guard was reportedly provoked when Valdez addressed him in Spanish. A civil lawsuit that Valdez filed over the incident was reportedly settled in 2019 for undisclosed terms.

New York: QNS Queens reported that Rikers Island jailer Equanna Escalera, 43, was arraigned on October 30, 2025, on charges of grand larceny and offering a false instrument, after City DOC investigators found that she filed fraudulent medical documentation to collect paid sick leave. Escalera submitted 31 letters falsely claiming 29 treatments throughout 2022 at a Bronx clinic—treatments she never received, but they let her collect $11,200 in wages while out of work. She was released on her own recognizance. Her employment status with the DOC was unclear. 

Ohio: On October 21, 2025, federal criminal complaints were unsealed accusing a nurse and a guard of conspiring to smuggle drugs and contraband into the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, which is operated for the state Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (DRC) by private prison giant CoreCivic. WKBN in Youngstown said that the nurse, Jodi Johnson, 47, and guard Brenda Dixon—or Dixson—62, bypassed security when Dixon, who worked at the checkpoint, intentionally failed to properly screen Johnson’s bags. When investigators caught her, Johnson was carrying a bag in which they found methamphetamine, marijuana, tobacco, vape cartridges, and cell phone chargers. Text messages reportedly showed Dixon assuring Johnson she would be on duty to facilitate entry. Johnson admitted to taking $9,000 in bribes in her an Apple Pay account for smuggling contraband since February. 

Ohio: In State Court of Common Pleas for Trumbull County on October 25, 2025, Judge Sean O’Brien handed down a 24-­month prison sentence to Michael Deon Hendon, 34, running consecutively to the life without parole sentence he is currently serving at Southern Correctional Facility in Lucasville for a 2013 triple homicide. The Warren Tribune Chronicle reported that Hendon, who is intellectually disabled, pleaded guilty to assaulting a guard at Trumbull Correctional Institution earlier in 2025. The guard wasn’t named.

Ohio:WOIO in Cleveland reported that the 50-­year-­old Lorain County Jail in Elyria was chosen as the setting for two upcoming movies for its “gritty appearance”—shoddy conditions that include moldy vents, “bubbling” ceilings, and broken tiles from which detainees and prisoners fashion homemade weapons. Sheriff Jack Hall admitted the jail needs to be torn down, noting this year’s repair bill hit $200,000. He has a $115 million replacement plan, necessitated by the severe deterioration, gouged metal, and safety risks, plus detainees and prisoners need extra clothes in freezing cold cells during the winter. Actor Frank Stalone was at the jail in November 2025 to film Redemption; the following month, John Travolta is slated to film another feature, whose name was not released.

Ohio: Cuyahoga County Jail guard Saadiga Raheem, 44, was fired on October 17, 2025, after admitting to investigators that she kissed a detainee twice while on duty. WEWS in Cleveland reported that the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association was fighting the dismissal. Raheem, who confessed to “developing feelings” for the detainee she called “Mr. Classified,” also deposited over $100 into his commissary account and delivered him home-­cooked food at least a dozen times. The two-­year Jail veteran was also accused of having over 240 phone conversations with him and lying to investigators. Raheem is the sixth guard at the lockup fired or placed on leave in the last year for inappropriate relationships with detainees.

Oklahoma: No one has yet explained how Antonio Hendricks, 18, was booked into the Oklahoma County Jail (OCJ) and released 19 hours later with a traumatic brain injury. According to KFOR in Oklahoma City, police body camera footage showed Hendricks was uninjured upon intake at the jail on October 10, 2025, after he was arrested for improper lane use, having a gun in his waistband and not having a valid driver’s license. His mother paid bond but was told processing could take 48 hours. Before she could get him, Hendricks was rushed the next day to a hospital, where doctors confirmed severe injuries. Jailers promised an “internal investigation” but have so far provided no explanation how Hendricks sustained the life-­threatening trauma while in custody. OCJ also failed to submit a mandatory incident report to the State Department of Health, which confirmed that it learned of the incident only through news reports. Hendricks’ attorney, Spencer Bryan, called that omission a “red flag,” accusing the jail of obstructing an investigation into the unexplained violence. Hendricks came out of his coma during the first week of November 2025 but “has a long recovery ahead of him,” KFOR said.

Pennsylvania:The Leader-Vindicator reported that state DOC guard Robert Burkholder, 36, was suspended without pay from the State Correctional Institution in Camp Hill, after video of his arrest on October 15, 2025, went viral over the Internet. Burkholder was charged with multiple felonies, including attempted statutory sexual assault and attempt to corrupt minors, after driving to Punxsutawney to meet a police decoy he believed was a 14-­year-­old girl. A predator-­hunting organization said that he contacted the decoy and acknowledged “her” age, even purchasing a “morning after pill” to induce an abortion of any pregnancy that might result after they had sex. Burkholder was held in the Jefferson County Jail, with bail set at $100,000. 

Pennsylvania: According to the Delco Times, George W. Hill Correctional Facility guard Brian Peacock, 38, was arrested and charged on November 3, 2025, with criminal solicitation and possession with intent to deliver after attempting to smuggle drugs into the Delaware County lockup in exchange for a cash bribe. Investigators tipped off by an unnamed jail detainee mounted a controlled undercover operation, in which a detective posed as an associate of a detainee and met with Peacock at a predetermined location in Glen Mills, where the guard got into the undercover officer’s vehicle and accepted a $2,000 cash bribe, along with a package containing what he believed was over 100 suboxone strips and three packs of cigarettes. Peacock was then arrested upon arriving for his shift at the lockup.

South Carolina: WCSC in Charleston reported that a corrupt state prison guard faces multiple charges after allegedly attempting to smuggle weed and fentanyl into a Dorchester County prison on October 28, 2025. John Meyers, 30, was charged with trafficking fentanyl, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, criminal conspiracy and providing contraband to prisoners, according to arrest warrants the TV station reviewed. A judge set bond at a total of $50,000 for the four charges, and Meyers was released from the Dorchester County Jail. South Carolina DOC spokesperson Chrysti Shain confirmed that Meyers worked at Lieber Correctional Institute in Ridgeville. Investigators say that he brought 10 grams of fentanyl, 212 grams of marijuana, vapes, THC wax, a cellphone, digital scales and other contraband into the prison when he reported for work on October 29, 2025. He was arrested and has since been fired, Shain said.

South Carolina: Latasha McClendon, 52, a guard at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Columbia, was arrested on November 6, 2025, and charged with two counts of assault and battery in the third Degree and misconduct in office, WIS in Columbia reported. The charges stem from an incident on October 26, 2025, when McClendon allegedly used excessive force on two detainees. Following an argument with one, he deployed a “chemical irritant” into the cell and then closed the flap door, trapping the two prisoners inside. The Richland County Sheriff’s Department determined that the use of pepper spray was unwarranted. As of November 10, 2025, she was held at the same lockup where she worked, awaiting a bond hearing. 

Tennessee: Former Monroe County Jail guard Michael Phillip Zackey, 39, was charged by warrant (not indictment) on October 31, 2025, with allegedly smuggling Suboxone into the lockup in exchange for cash bribes, according to WBIR in Knoxville. He reportedly received $300 per delivery. Zackey turned himself in on the same day and was released on bond. His arrest was not a one-­off for the jail; he is the third guard recently charged with introducing contraband. Former guards Cody Harrill and Joshua Duncan were arrested and terminated earlier in 2025, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Aug. 2025, p.62.] While Sheriff Tommy Jones issued a condemnation, the repeated smuggling incidents betray a lack of supervision at the lockup. 

Tennessee: A bizarre security lapse at West Tennessee State Penitentiary (WTSP) earlier in the year exposed a serial poacher illegally hunting trophy deer on the prison’s strictly off-­limits property, for which Terry Sellers, 53, pleaded guilty to multiple charges on November 6, 2025, WREG in Memphis reported. The conviction followed a months-­long investigation by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA), which determined that Sellers illegally killed three massive whitetail bucks in January 2025, whose antlers totaled over 491 inches. The investigation, triggered by reports of a highly recognizable 15-­point deer frequenting WTSP grounds, used a “ping warrant” to track Sellers’ smartphone to his location on the prison grounds. For his unusual crimes, Sellers must pay $17,500 in restitution to the state and forfeit his hunting privileges for the next six years. He was also ordered to pay $850 to a taxidermist for the mounted heads, which the TWRA plans to use for educational purposes.

Texas: According to the Daily Mail, Travis County Jail guard Amos Nyanway, 25, was arrested on October 14, 2025, for allegedly operating a bizarre smuggling scheme to supply chicken wings to detainees in exchange for cash bribes. The operation was uncovered during a separate investigation by the County’s Security Threat Intelligence Unit in August 2025. Nyanway had been employed by the County only since June 2024. The former U.S. Army soldier was placed on leave and then fired. He now faces time behind bars in the same lockup he once guarded.

United Kingdom:The Mirror reported that former prison guard Isabelle Dale, 23, “burst into tears” when she was convicted on November 13, 2025, of two counts of misconduct in public office and a third of smuggling contraband. Dale was found guilty of maintaining sexual relationships with HMP Coldingley prisoners Connor Money, 28, and Shahid Sharif, 33. Surveillance video captured her posting other prisoners as lookouts while she entered the prison chapel with Sharif, exiting a few minutes later and readjusting her uniform. She wrote Sharif love letters on paper sprayed with K2 synthetic cannabinoids and had his nickname, “Sneaks,” tattooed on the back of her neck. She also called herself “Mrs. Sneaky,” even buying her own engagement ring for £3,000 (about $3,931 USD).

United Kingdom: The Daily Mail reported that former HMP Dovegate guard Heather Pinchbeck, 28, pleaded guilty on October 22, 2025, to “transmission of an image/sound from a prison without authority” and “willfully neglecting to perform her duty,” after investigators found that she made a series of romantic mobile phone calls to prisoner Joseph Hardy between February 15 and March 4, 2023. She has since left the prison service and begun working in public relations. Hardy, 31, is serving a 14-­year term for an assault with a machete that severed his victim’s leg. He was charged with engaging in “illicit communications with a prison officer,” as well as possessing a phone in prison.

Utah: According to Scripps News Group, Mutaz Mohamed, a 30-­year-­old detainee at the Cache County Jail in Logan, pleaded guilty on November 10, 2025, to multiple charges stemming from his attempt to assault an unnamed guard with a pair of wire strippers. It was unclear what charges Mohamed was being held on when the incident occurred in August 2025, nor whether he had been convicted. He was on lockdown and making persistent intercom calls when an unnamed control room guard attempted to silence Mohamed’s cell intercom and mistakenly hit the wrong button, accidentally releasing him from his cell. Refusing orders to return, Mohamed was being escorted back to his cell when he pulled the tool from the waistband of his pants and threatened the guard, who managed to disarm him. A subsequent review of surveillance video footage revealed that a maintenance worker dropped the wire strippers near the cell door, allowing Mohamed to retrieve and conceal the weapon. His plea deal resulted in convictions for aggravated assault by a prisoner, interfering with a guard, and possessing a weapon. He remains in jail without bail awaiting sentencing scheduled for December 2025.

Virginia:Local News Now in Arlington reported that the Arlington County Detention Facility, also known as the Arlington County Jail (ACJ), took over operational control of detainee and prisoner medical care on November 3, 2025, replacing private contractor MEDIKO, which was blamed for several in-­custody deaths. As PLN reported, MEDIKO replaced Corizon Health as the jail’s contracted healthcare provider after a series of detainee deaths in 2021 and 2022. [See: PLN, Mar. 2022, p.52.] Sheriff Jose Quiroz championed the move to in-­house providers, arguing it ensured greater accountability and compassion than the failed privatization scheme. While officials claimed the change would improve health outcomes and support rehabilitation, the budget for medical staff includes only 12 new positions, with “additional positions” still relying on temporary contractors to fill them—suggesting that the jail may struggle to fully eliminate the cost-­cutting, private-­sector mentality that compromises detainee and prisoner healthcare.

Virginia: Former state DOC guard Sgt. April Parrott was arrested for her role in a massive smuggling scheme on October 23, 2025. According to WRIC in Richmond, Parrott was charged with multiple felonies, including conspiracy and delivery of narcotics, for allegedly smuggling $1.1 million worth of drugs into the Virginia Correctional Center for Women. Five others were also accused in the scheme, including three probationers and a prisoner. Parrott and the co-­conspirators were indicted on 13 charges by a grand jury in Goochland County Circuit Court. 

Washington: Green Hill School in Chehalis, a maximum-­security juvenile facility that costs taxpayers $625 daily per prisoner—three times more than the state DOC spends at adult prisons—was once again in the spotlight for revelations that guards engaged in sexual misconduct with incarcerated youth. The Centralia Chronicle reported the most recent incident in April 2024, when an unnamed guard unlocked the cell of double-­murder convict Robbrie Thompson, 22, to facilitate his 18-­minute hook-­up in a linen closet with guard Emily Baker, 30, during lockdown hours at dawn. For that, Baker was sentenced to 84 months in prison on October 10, 2025, after pleading guilty on September 5 to charges of custodial sexual misconduct and smuggling. Guard Angel Misner was also sexually involved with Thompson in 2024, and both Misner and Baker were reportedly aware of each other’s relationship with him. Misner was found guilty of one count of official misconduct and released from the Lewis County Jail in January of this year. But she was caught delivering burritos to the Green Hill School in March with THC concentrate hidden inside, and she ended up back behind bars in May. Gov. Bob Ferguson (D) has installed new leadership at the state Division of Juvenile Justice, including a new Secretary and Superintendents, to address the ongoing crisis.  

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