Alabama: A civil rights lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Alabama by Paulette Tennison on August 29, 2025, blamed Morgan County jailers for the death of her son, John Scott Jr., on April 22, 2025, just one week after he was arrested by Priceville Police during an apparent mental health crisis. WAFF in Huntsville said that leaked surveillance video captured jail guards Eli Carnes, Jonathan Espino, Landon Wallace, Keith Rutherford, “Officer Pedro” and Mike Burleson punching, kicking, and tasing Scott before dragging him to a holding cell—where he was left to “asphyxiate on his own vomit” the suit claimed, adding that the beat-down was so vicious that one unnamed guard allegedly broke his hand. Scott, however, was allegedly denied medical care. Tennison is represented by attorneys with the Cochrane Law Firm. See: Tennison v. City of Decatur, USDC (N.D. Ala.), Case No. 5:25-cv-01466.

Alabama: Calvin Bush, 40, a state Department of Corrections (DOC) guard lieutenant at St. Clair Correctional Facility, was arrested on July 31, 2025, and charged with trafficking fentanyl and marijuana, according to the Equal Justice Initiative. Just a day earlier, prisoners Quarell Henry, 36, and Rakeivian Deet, 37, were found dead from apparent fentanyl overdoses. Investigators recovered a significant stash of contraband from Bush’s residence, including 8.9 pounds of meth, 19 pounds of marijuana, 100 grams of crack cocaine, and 156 cell phones, with an estimated value exceeding half a million dollars. Conveniently, Bush was a supervisor with authority over contraband searches.

Alabama: State death row prisoner Geoffrey Todd West, 50, was executed by nitrogen gas on September 25, 2025, at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility, according to the Daily Record. Convicted of the brutal 1997 murder of Margaret Parrish Berry, 33, during a gas station robbery, West was strapped to a gurney where witnesses said that he struggled for air for some time before he was declared dead. The victim’s son had pleaded for clemency, but Gov. Key Ivey (R) allowed the execution to proceed. The use of nitrogen gas in executions is criticized by the United Nations as potentially “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”

Arizona: KTVK/KPHO in Pheonix reported that Donna Leeann Harris, 27, a former guard at CoreCivic’s La Palma Correctional Center in Eloy, was arrested on September 17, 2025, on felony charges including unlawful sexual conduct, money laundering, and introducing contraband. After investigators learned that prisoner Yahrusalem Burkes bragged about his sexual encounters with Burkes inside the prison, they found that he used them to blackmail the guard into working as a prostitute for him. Messages obtained from his Securus account revealed that he sent Harris looking for clients in Phoenix and Las Vegas through social media, after which she sent over $5,500 to Burkes’ brother. She was also accused of smuggling drugs and cellphones into the lockup for Burkes. Harris was booked on a cash bond set at $75,000.

Arizona: For allegedly attempting to smuggle synthetic cannabinoids into the Fourth Avenue Jail in Phoenix, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) detectives arrested paralegal Christopher Byers on August 14, 2025, KTAR in Phoenix reported. They began investigating Byers, 45, after he submitted court paperwork which tested positive for drugs. A search of his home then led to the discovery of more contaminated papers. Sheriff Jerry Sheridan vowed “zero-tolerance” for contraband, but the arrest comes during a rising drug crisis in MCSO lockups, which resulted in one prisoner death and 12 overdoses at the Estrella Jail in February 2025. Sheridan previously defended his controversial decision to stop using body scanners on guards, arguing that staffers are not the source of the drugs and that the policy deters new hires. He attributed the overdose spike to a significant staff shortage, claiming that he is operating his jail with half the guards he needs.

Arkansas: Former Little River County Jail guard Cpt. Kenneth Lee Vaughn, 53, was arrested on September 30, 2025, and charged with felony sexual assault for engaging in sexual contact with an unnamed prisoner while she was in his custody during transport to a state DOC prison. The Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette said that Vaughn was booked on a $25,000 bond into the jail in nearby White County, where the incident allegedly occurred.

Colorado: According to the Colorado Newsline, the Trump administration canceled the Wild Horse Inmate Program at Colorado’s East Cañon Correctional Complex on September 30, 2025, ending the 30-year vocational training program. Citing “rising costs,” the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) refused to renew the contract beyond its November 2025 expiration. The program offered skills to rehabilitate prisoners while also assisting BLM efforts to manage thousands of wild horses and burros. State DOC leaders expressed regret over the closure; they are now tasked with reassigning about 30 prisoners and five employees. The BLM is coordinating the relocation of over 2,000 horses to programs in Utah and Wyoming.

Ecuador: CBS News reported that gang clashes in two Ecuadorian prisons left 30 prisoners and a guard dead. The violence began on September 22, 2025, when 13 prisoners and a guard were killed in a jail in southwest Ecuador. A riot then erupted on September 25 at a prison in Esmeraldas, near the Colombian border, killing at least 17 more prisoners, two of whom were decapitated. The deadly violence is part of ongoing wars between drug gangs fighting for control of the penal system, including U.S.-designated terrorist groups Los Choneros and Los Lobos.

England: BBC News reported that HMP Wakefield prisoners Rashid Gedel, 25, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, appeared in court on October 13, 2025, to face charges related to the murder of fellow prisoner Ian Watkins. The former Lostprophets singer was found dead at the lockup on October 11, 2025, after an apparent knife attack. Watkins, 48, was serving a 29-year sentence for a string of crimes, including attempted rape and sexual assault of a minor, and conspiracy to rape a child. He had been attacked once before in 2023 but survived.

Florida: A “procedural error” at a Miami-Dade County jail led to the accidental release of James Edward Daniels, 60, a federal prisoner serving a life sentence for a 2020 kidnapping that resulted in two deaths. According to Axios, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) transferred Daniels to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center for a separate drug case, in which a judge then sentenced him to time served. Ignoring a detainer order to return him to BOP custody, the jail then released the prisoner on September 27, 2025, sparking a three-day manhunt. Daniels was apprehended in Macon, Georgia, on October 1, 2025. The incident was an embarrassment for the Miami-Dade jail system, which had just concluded 13 years of federal oversight in July 2025.

Georgia: The New York Times reported that prisoner Russell Tafron Weatherspoon, 26, was among four men sentenced to a total over 24 years in federal prison for running a wire fraud conspiracy that targeted women working in the medical field. Prosecutors stated that Weatherspoon ran the scheme across six states, including Iowa, from his cell at Calhoun State Prison. Co-conspirators Karl Andre Dieudonne, Demonte Tequis Brazil, and Gregory Lamar Scorza impersonated cops, using spoofed numbers to trick victims into believing that they were accused of failure to appear in court. To avoid arrest, the scammers then pressured them to pay a cash “bond.” In Iowa alone, the scheme netted approximately $66,000. Scorza was the last of the co-conspirators to be sentenced, receiving a six-year term on September 9, 2025. Weatherspoon was the first, receiving 128 months on April 9, running consecutively to his existing term. Dieudonne got 36 months and Brazil 51 months, both on May 13.

Georgia: Former Dooly State Prison guard Ahryanna Trice, 26, was arrested on October 2, 2025, and charged with felony ecstasy trafficking, trading with prisoners, and violating her oath. WMAZ in Macon said that Trice was allegedly paid $200 by prisoner George Luckett to smuggle a sizable haul of contraband into the Unadilla lockup. The smuggled items included nearly 3.5 ounces of marijuana along with ecstasy pills, cigarettes, rolling papers and tobacco. In addition to drug trafficking, Trice was also accused of maintaining a sexual relationship with the prisoner. She was booked into the Dooly County Jail with no bond.

Guatemala: The New York Times reported that a bold prison break at Guatemala’s Fraijanes II maximum-security lockup resulted in the escape of 20 prisoners who were part of the Barrio 18 gang. Offering “no good explanation,” officials disclosed the escapes, which happened over an unknown period, on October 12, 2025. A massive nationwide manhunt was unleashed shortly afterward that involved some 45,000 personnel. Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez admitted that prison security protocols were “weak,” also citing a lack of technology for his inability even to confirm the identities of those who escaped. He blamed corrupt staff for allowing the high-ranking gang members to slip out during prison visits.

Indiana: Westville Correctional Facility kitchen supervisor Jessica Chalupa, 34, was arrested on August 29, 2025, and charged with Level 5 felony bribery and misdemeanor trafficking with a prisoner, WBND in South Bend reported. An anonymous tip sparked a state DOC investigation that found the former Aramark employee used a prisoner kitchen worker to mule marijuana into the lockup. Evidence included 37 Cash App transactions totaling over $10,000 from three prisoners. Investigators also found text messages and a photo of Chalupa holding a wad of cash. When confronted, she initially denied the allegations before stating, “If you already know, then why are you asking me?” She now faces a potential six-year sentence on the most serious count.

Kansas: According to ABC News, Wyandotte County Detention Center guard Richard Fatherley, 34, was put on paid administrative leave on September 18, 2025, and charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the death of Charles Adair, a detainee arrested for misdemeanor traffic violations.Fatherley, who is not a certified law enforcement officer, allegedly knelt on the detainee’s back during an altercation on July 5, 2025, causing Adair to sustain broken ribs and a sternal fracture as he died from “mechanical asphyxia,” according to an autopsy report. The medical examiner also ruled the death a homicide. Fatherley was not booked into jail, which the district attorney said was customary for guards in the county. Meanwhile Adair’s family is fighting the office of County Sheriff Daniel Soptic for release of surveillance video from the jail that captured the deadly encounter with the guard.

Kentucky: Ashley Jade Howard, 42, a former BOP guard at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, was convicted on federal bribery charges on October 6, 2025, after she pleaded guilty to smuggling large amounts of contraband into the lockup, according to the Lexington Herald Leader. Between late 2023 and September 2024, Howard accepted $18,602 via mobile banking apps from an unidentified prisoner in exchange for smuggling tobacco, cigarettes and synthetic marijuana. In one incident, Howard brought in 50 sheets of paper laced with synthetic cannabinoids, which other staffers confiscated. Lab tests revealed the papers contained 5F-ADB, a Schedule I controlled substance also known as Spice or K2. She faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison at her January 2026 sentencing.

Massachusetts: On September 19, 2025, former South Bay House of Correction guard William Cooper, 37, was arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on a single count of rape of a person in custody, according to the Boston Globe. Cooper was just two months on the job when he allegedly had sexual intercourse with an unnamed prisoner in a vacant caseworker office on July 7, 2025, taping trash bags over the window to obstruct the view of passers by. After an unidentified third party made a complaint, she was questioned about the 10-minute visit to the office that she and the guard made, which was caught on surveillance video. After an initial denial, she then confessed. Cooper also denied the allegation, prosecutors said, but the video proved her right and him a liar. Under Massachusetts law, prisoners are incapable of consenting to sex with a guard. Cooper was being held on $5,000 bail.

Michigan: Macomb County Jail guard Daniel Gallus, 37, was charged on October 9, 2025, with assaulting a detainee, according to WWMT in Kalamazoo. The unnamed victim required stitches and underwent a head scan at a hospital after the incident on September 5, 2025. Gallus was charged with felony obstruction of justice and misdemeanor aggravated assault, which carry terms up to five years and one year, respectively. He pleaded not guilty, and a $10,000 personal bond was set. County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said his office was cooperating in the investigation and prosecution of the charges against his jailer.

Nevada: KTNV in Las Vegas reported that former state prisoner Hoza Del Collins, 30, was arrested on August 21, 2025, on three felony counts, including second-degree murder, for allegedly supplying lethal synthetic drugs to prisons in Nevada and California. The arrest is part of an ongoing investigation into the source of illegal drugs entering prisons by the Nevada DOC. Investigators serving a warrant on Collins’ home found “toxic substances” used to create synthetic drugs, which DOC officials said have been linked to a recent series of prisoner deaths. The drugs are made from household items like insecticides and cleaning agents before they are sprayed onto sheets of ordinary-looking paper and smuggled into lockups. Collins, who was a DOC prisoner from 2017-2018, is being held without bail.

Nevada: The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that former state DOC guard Derland Blake, 41, received a probated 738-day jail sentence on September 8, 2025, after giving an Alford plea to two counts of child abuse/neglect. Though the victims’ stepfather pleaded with District Judge Tina Talim to revoke the agreement and impose a stiffer sentence, she said that she had to “respect the prosecutors’ decision to resolve the case, while ensuring that Blake’s probation had conditions reflecting the severity of the crime.” The former guard’s criminal history includes a prior conviction for smuggling contraband into High Desert State Prison and an earlier allegation of sexual assault involving two young boys that was pleaded down to a conviction for attempted abuse, neglect or endangerment of a child—which also resulted in a probated sentence. After the sentencing, before he was handcuffed, Blake gave the middle finger to the courtroom gallery.

New Jersey: On October 2, 2025, state Superior Court Judge Christopher J. Garrenger dismissed a criminal indictment against 14 guards and supervisors accused of a brutal 2021 assault on prisoners at the now-shuttered Edna Mahan Correctional Facility. The New Jersey Monitor reported that the judge tossed out the charges with prejudice, preventing the state from seeking a new indictment, in a decision that cited “unconstitutional” delays and “prosecutorial negligence” by the office of state Attorney General (AG) Matt Platkin (D), whose lawyers he accused of “mismanagement” of the case and violation of the defendants’ speedy-trial rights. The ruling is a major blow to the incarcerated victims, who were beaten and humiliated by the guards during a night of violent retaliatory cell extractions in January 2021 that left several prisoners injured, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Dec. 2022, p.32.] Garrenger stayed his ruling for 45 days to give the state time to file an appeal, which Platkin’s office then filed, according to First Assistant AG Lyndsay Ruotolo, as reported by WKXW in Trenton.

New York: Former state prison guard Rohail Khan, 28, was sentenced to two years in federal prison on September 29, 2025, for his role in the premeditated April 2023 beating of prisoner James Barton at Mid-State Correctional Facility, New York Advance Local Media said. As PLN reported, Khan and fellow guards Brandon Montonari and Michael Williams pleaded guilty in April 2025 to the beat-down, which they jokingly called the “George Floyd challenge.” [See: PLN, June 2025, p.28.] Khan’s lawyer, David Longeretta, argued for a light sentence because Barton was not mechanically restrained, so he was not technically a “vulnerable inmate” and could have defended himself. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gadarian noted that any resistance Barton might have put up “could have turned a beating into a murder.” Chief U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes agreed, replying to the attorney’s argument: “Wow.” She gave Montanari, 34, a 37-month sentence on August 21, 2025, and Williams, 38, a 21-month sentence on September 30, 2025. The former guards must also serve two years of supervised release.

Ohio: WKBN in Youngstown reported that former Mahoning County Jail guard Damon K. Perry, 53, was sentenced to over nine years in federal prison on September 25, 2025, for sexually abusing a detainee. He received the 112-month sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of sexual abuse of a detainee, for engaging in non-consensual sexual acts with an unnamed federal detainee housed at the jail in November 2023. Perry resigned after the allegations were brought to the office of Sheriff Jerry Greene, and the federal Department of Justice took over the prosecution because the victim was being held for the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS).

Oregon: Ty Anthony Sage, 26, was being held in the Multnomah County Jail on second-degree murder and robbery charges when he was mistakenly released on bail on September 22, 2025, setting off a multi-day manhunt. According to ABC News, Sage had been denied bail, but an order erroneously indicated his bond was set at $5,000, leading to his release. Officials acknowledged the systemic failure, and County Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell admitted, “This should not have happened.” Sage was apprehended four days later at a gas station in Florence. Morrisey’s Office is reviewing the incident to determine how the error occurred.

Pennsylvania: The Daily American reported that attorneys for death row prisoner Paul J. Kendrick filed a motion for a new trial on August 29, 2025, after an anonymous letter prompted an investigation into jury misconduct during his capital murder case. Kendrick was convicted of the 2018 murder of guard Sgt. Mark Baserman at the State Correctional Institution (SCI) in Somerset, where the prisoner was already serving a life sentence, as PLN reported; a jury then sentenced him to death in August 2025. [See: PLN, June 2025, p.62.; and Oct. 2025, p.63.] Kendrick’s defense team claimed to corroborate the tip, saying that at least one juror discussed the case with neighbors, friends, and law enforcement during the trial, and another went to a bar and talked about it. The motion is now being considered by the state Court of Common Pleas for Somerset County, where Kendrick’s case was tried.

Pennsylvania: For a bizarre hazing incident with guard trainees, SCI-Forest prison guard Garrett Smead, 29, was fired and charged on September 30, 2025, with multiple misdemeanors, including indecent assault, unlawful restraint, and indecent exposure. WGAL in Lancaster reported that the charges stemmed from two separate incidents on May 21, 2025, when Smead allegedly restrained two newly hired guards and sexually assaulted them. EYT Media added that a total of 11 witnesses reported how Smead wrestled the first trainee to the floor and cuffed his hands over his head, before stripping naked and putting his underwear on the trainee’s head and rubbing his genitals on him. Smead then stuck another guard’s vape pen in his naked buttocks and attempted to force the trainee to smoke it. After fellow guards freed the trainee and Smead dressed, he attempted to kiss a second trainee and, after a scuffle, handcuffed him, too, before again stripping and dry-humping him. Before other guards released the trainee, Smead gave him a “wedgie” and wrote in black marker on his buttocks, “Property of G. Smead.”

Pennsylvania: On October 3, 2025, state prisoner Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam, 64, walked out of SCI-Huntingdon after his murder conviction was vacated. According to the BBC News, Vedam spent over four decades behind bars for the 1980 murder of roommate Tom Kinser, 19, before a 2022 discovery of exculpatory evidence that prosecutors failed to disclose. His conviction was tossed, and Centre County prosecutors declined to retry him and dropped the charge, leading to his release. However, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immediately detained him on a “legacy deportation order” tied to a drug conviction made in a plea deal early in his incarceration. Vedam, who arrived in the U.S. from India at nine months old, is now held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, which is privately operated by The GEO Group under contract with ICE. He is fighting deportation, arguing that his exoneration and record of rehabilitation, including working as a teacher and earning a master’s degree while incarcerated, warrant reopening his long-delayed immigration case.

South Carolina: Lee Correctional Institution canteen manager Sharon E. Smith, 36, was arrested on smuggling charges on September 12, 2025, when a search of her vehicle turned up $2,500 worth of contraband “grillz”—semi-custom dental jewelry prized by some prisoners—and she was charged with criminal conspiracy and attempting to furnish contraband to a prisoner. WACH in Columbia reported that Smith then confessed to her role in the conspiracy in writing to the state DOC’s Inspector General and was immediately fired.

South Carolina: For throwing a cup full of his diarrhea directly into a guard’s face at McCormick Correctional Institution, state prisoner Donald Harper Jr., 35, was sentenced on September 15, 2025, to 15 additional years, the maximum penalty for his guilty plea to the charge of “throwing bodily fluids on a corrections officer.” WLTX in Columbia said that Harper was already serving a 24-year sentence for the 2015 murder of Benedict College instructor Robert Carson when the attack occurred in January 2025, while the unnamed guard delivered meals. The new sentence pushed Harper’s projected release date back from 2036 to 2051.

South Dakota: South Dakota Searchlight reported that former state prison guard Carson DeYoung, 22, was among those indicted on felony charges on September 18, 2025, for a conspiracy to smuggle drugs and contraband into the South Dakota State Penitentiary. State DOC prisoners Max Bolden and Simba Oma Maat were also charged, along with two unincarcerated accomplices, Nancy Sage and Chandler Boone. Boone allegedly mailed items to Sage, who then coordinated with DeYoung to smuggle them into the lockup between August 8 and August 14, 2025. All now face charges for conspiring to distribute meth, K2, and cellphones. Since Bolden and Maat are already incarcerated, state law allows their current sentences to be doubled if convicted of the new felonies.

Texas: A five-day manhunt ended with the capture of Harris County Jail prisoner Troy Dugas, 36, after he was mistakenly released from the Houston lockup on August 17, 2025. KRIV in Houston reported that Dugas, who was serving a combined seven-year sentence in the state Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) for assaulting a family member and evading arrest, was transferred to the jail to face trial for additional charges. But jail staff failed to properly document Dugas’ state prison sentence in his file, County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez later said, so when the new charges were dropped, Dugas was assumed eligible for release and freed. He was apprehended by a USMS task force in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on August 21, 2025.

Texas: According to the Amarillo Globe-News, two TDCJ guards were fired and arrested on October 5, 2025, when they were charged with the death of a prisoner left locked inside his cell while a mattress fire filled it with smoke at the William P. Clement Unit in Amarillo. Lt. William Eugene Romero, 33, was charged with criminally negligent homicide, and Sgt. Crystal Janelle West, 39, was charged with second-degree manslaughter. After the prisoner lit his mattress on fire early on Sunday, October 5, 2025, he was ordered to open the food slot in his cell door and refused. Romero allegedly told West to leave the slot closed, and when she later returned to find the cell billowing smoke, she also “refused to help in any way,” leaving the prisoner trapped. He was later found unresponsive and pronounced dead.

Virginia: The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that Riverside Regional Jail guard Akiylah Taylor, 32, was arrested by Prince George County Police on September 10, 2025, and charged with conspiring to deliver drugs to an unnamed prisoner, after an investigation by the jail’s Office of Professional Review. The specific drugs were not identified. Conspiracy to deliver drugs to a prisoner in Virginia is a felony punishable by a up to 10 years in prison. The jail’s Col. Jeffrey Dillman told WRIC in Richmond that this was a “deeply troubling breach of trust.”

Wyoming: Wyoming Women’s Center (WWC) prisoner Chasity Jacobs filed a federal lawsuit on August 8, 2025, alleging her sexual assault by former guard Joseph Gaul resulted from a “longstanding pattern of misconduct” to which state DOC leadership showed “deliberate indifference,”in violation of her civil rights. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported that the suit named Gaul, as well as WWC Warden Timothy Lang and Deputy Warden Robert Hardy. Gaul was hired despite being fired from at least two previous public jobs for misconduct toward women. In 2023, he pleaded guilty to criminal second-degree sexual assault against Jacobs and was sentenced to prison for up to five years. Jacobs’ suit noted that three other former WWC guards have been convicted of sexually assaulting prisoners in the last five years. She is represented by attorneys with the Spence Law Firm LLC in Jackson. See: Jacobs v. Gaul, USDC (D. Wyo.), Case No. 2:25-cv-00185.  

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