Alabama: Tipped off by a public complaint, a state Department of Corrections (DOC) K-9 guard intercepted a drone making a massive contraband drop at the Donaldson Correctional Facility on June 12, 2026, WABM in Birmingham reported. Recovered was a duffle bag packed with three pounds of marijuana, synthetic narcotics, 36 cell phones and smart sunglasses. Police later arrested David Anderson, 36, of Jonesboro, Georgia, who was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on a $10,000 bond for conspiracy to promote prison contraband.

Alabama: Elmore Correctional Facility guards Niana Longmire and Carmelo Hopkins resigned from the state DOC on July 3, 2026, following a contraband investigation that culminated in their arrests on felony charges. WSFA in Montgomery reported that investigators intercepted a haul before it entered the prison, recovering 138 grams of fentanyl, 109 grams of flakka, 29 grams of methamphetamine, sprayed paper, weapons and 12 cell phones. Longmire was charged with conspiracy to traffic fentanyl, methamphetamine and synthetic cannabinoids. Hopkins was charged with conspiracy to commit a controlled substance crime.

California: After an eight-day trial ended on June 18, 2026, a Napa County jury convicted former San Quentin Rehabilitation Center guard Richard Phillip Bardouski, 65, on 11 felony counts, including sexual intercourse and penetration with children under 10 years of age, KPIX in San Francisco reported. Bardouski was found guilty of repeatedly assaulting three young family members between 2010 and 2015 while employed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDRC). The office of District Attorney Allison Haley said that among the aggravating factors jurors found true was that Bardouski used his position of trust to assault his victims. At sentencing he faces up to 165 years in prison.

Florida: WFLA in Tampa Bay reported that former Citrus County Detention Facility guard Justin Harvey, 50, pleaded guilty to bribery on July 21, 2026, after abusing his position to introduce contraband into the jail. Harvey accepted a $4,000 bribe to smuggle a Saran-Wrap-sealed cellphone to a pre-trial detainee. The scheme unraveled when Harvey met an undercover law enforcement agent disguised as the detainee’s associate to collect the cash and device. Federal investigators later matched Harvey’s fingerprints directly to the tape used to conceal the contraband. Facing up to 15 years in federal prison, Harvey agreed to forfeit the $4,000 pending an unannounced sentencing date.

Georgia: A federal indictment unsealed on June 24, 2026, named 12 defendants accused of conspiring to use heavy-payload drones make at least 38 contraband drops to 10 federal prisons across six states between September 2023 and May 2026. According to WUPA in Atlanta, the smuggling ring operated out of a former Macon daycare facility nicknamed “The Lab,” flying drones carrying narcotics, including methamphetamine, marijuana, suboxone, and K-2, along with cellphones, tobacco, and saw blades for use as weapons and escape tools. FBI Special Agent in Charge Marlo Graham likened the frequency of the drone traffic to “a small airport in the evening.” The defendants, including ringleader Ira Christopher Jackson, 42, face charges ranging from racketeering to drug conspiracy, including several counts that carry a life sentence.

Germany: In a decision sure to raise eyebrows, the Hagen Regional Court upheld a convicted drug dealer’s right to mail semen-drenched letters to his fiancée on July 14, 2026. The prisoner was identified only as “the applicant,” consistent with German privacy rules governing court decisions, according to the Irish Star. Guards at the Schwerte prison halted the bodily fluid exchanges, citing health hazards and imposed disciplinary restrictions. The prisoner was then sanctioned by officials with a one-week ban from recreational activities after prison staff objected to inspecting the letters. Siding with the prisoner’s claim that the ban infringed on his right to free personality development, the Court ruled the discipline lacked legal basis. Judges declared prison hygiene rules exist to protect prisoners, not staff, thereby making the guards’ disgust and health concerns legally irrelevant, and suggested guards simply wear gloves to handle the sticky correspondence.

Indiana: A former guard at the Pendleton Correctional Facility was sentenced on July 30, 2026 to federal prison for “excessive, unlawful force” against a prisoner. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), ex-guard Shaunacy Edmonds, 36, received a five-month prison sentence to be followed by two years of supervised release. As reported by WTHR, the incident occurred in May 2024, when surveillance video captured Edmonds hitting a prisoner multiple times in the face and kneeing him. Edmonds told investigators that the prisoner, who was in restraints at the time, was “pulling against the restraints attempting to get free.” Neither the footage nor testimony from other guards support Edmond’s claim.

Iowa: Under a settlement agreement concluded on June 25, 2026, the Iowa Board of Nursing suspended the license of former Newton Correctional Facility nurse Penny Lynn Daniels for 90 days, followed by three years of probation, resolving charges that she failed to adequately assess or treat prisoner Malga Harun Yanga, 23, when he exhibited severe symptoms of distress, including vomiting blood and excruciating abdominal pain, prior to his September 2024 death. According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, Daniels was warned by other personnel that the prisoner’s condition was worsening, yet she merely added electrolyte fluid to his chart orders and dismissed his illness as a virus. Yanga died hours later from a preventable perforated ulcer. A notice of tort claim filed by Yanga’s Estate in 2025 means that Daniels still faces a civil lawsuit stemming from the incident. The claim also named fellow prison nurse David Allen Arterburn; he, too, is being considered for disciplinary charges related to Yanga’s death.

Iowa: According to a report by KGAN in Cedar Rapids, six detainees at the Black Hawk County Jail were charged with felony rioting and criminal mischief following an uprising on July 7, 2026. The disturbance began around 5:00 p.m. when detainees in the high-security A-Pod refused a lockdown order. Guards deployed pepper spray, but detainees retaliated by masking security cameras, breaking fire sprinklers and clogging toilets, causing over $1,500 in damage. They then constructed barricades using mattresses, blankets and laundry carts. A tactical team of deputies employed by Sheriff Nathan Neff crushed the standoff using Tasers and less-lethal munitions. No injuries were reported to detainees or staff, but Neff called the event unprecedented in his 32-year tenure.

Maryland: An Independence Day clash at Roxbury Correctional Institution left eight prisoners hospitalized with stab wounds, The Baltimore Sun reported. The brawl erupted between members of MS-13 and the rival Black Guerrilla Family. While the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) claimed the incident was unrelated to staffing levels, the prison guard’s union, the state chapter of the American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees (AFSMCE), blamed an ongoing staffing crisis in the DPSCS. An 18% consolidation in positions since 2019 has left guards working mandatory 16-hour shifts, and the AFSCME said that understaffing directly fueled a recent spike in assaults and homicides.

Maryland: A Somerset County judge sentenced Eastern Correctional Institution prisoner Leslie Broadway, 27, to life in prison on June 24, 2026, for the first-degree murder of his cellmate, Virgil Robinson Jr., 38. He was convicted at trial in March 2026 trial of the fatal assault, which occurred inside a locked cell on September 20, 2024, in the prison’s segregation unit, WMDT in Salisbury reported. Afterward, Robinson was discovered unresponsive with severe blunt force injuries and a fractured hyoid bone. Broadway’s conviction is currently under appeal.

Michigan: According to WEMU in Ypsilanti, former state DOC guard Joshua Lee, 23, was sentenced to 18 months-to-15 years in prison on June 18, 2026, for second-degree criminal sexual conduct. As PLN reported, Lee was arraigned on a four-count charge in October 2025 for engaging in multiple sexual acts with several prisoners at the Women’s Huron Valley Prison. [See: PLN, Dec. 2025, p.64.] Under a plea deal secured in April 2026, three counts were dropped. The case has intensified debate over a gap in Michigan law, which fails to differentiate between sexual contact and penetration offenses committed by predatory prison staff.

Michigan: Former federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) guard Cara Wozniak, 36, was accused of violating probation on July 1, 2026, WDIV in Detroit reported. Wozniak served six months in jail after pleading guilty to having sexual contact with a prisoner and smuggling contraband at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Milan, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Nov. 2024, p.62.] Just prior to her most recent polygraph exam on June 10, 2026, she admitted to her probation officer that she had continued to maintain a secret relationship with the prisoner via phone and social media. She was then ordered to appear in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to face charges of violating the terms of her supervised release. An unsecured bond was set at $10,000. See: United States v. Wozniak, USDC (E.D. Mich.), Case No. 2:24-cr-20282.

Michigan: On July 14, 2026, former state DOC guard Shelby Pennock, 44, was charged with facilitating a prisoner’s assault on another guard at the Baraga Correctional Facility, the Detroit News reported. Prosecutors allege that he opened a cell door and allowed the prisoner inside to race to the other guard, placing him in a headlock with one arm and with the other repeatedly striking him in the head and upper body. If convicted, Pennock faces up to five years in prison.

Missouri: Surveillance video was released on June 26, 2026, of a melee that erupted four months earlier during a wi-fi outage at the Buzz Westfall Justice Center in St. Louis County, Spectrum News reported. After 35 detainees barricaded a housing unit, guards deployed four chemical pepper-spray “aerosol grenades” to regain control, causing $35,000 in estimated damages. The tensions were traced to reduced out-of-cell time, which officials blamed on chronic understaffing, noting the lockup is short 80 guards. No serious injuries resulted, but the County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is mulling criminal charges for four unnamed “main actors.”

Missouri: Former St. Louis City Sheriff’s Deputy James Short, 27, pleaded guilty on July 27, 2026, to two counts of sexual conduct in the course of duty. Short, who was assigned to the City Justice Center at the time of the assault, had sexual contact with a detainee in January 2025. Avoiding a trial, Short accepted a plea agreement in exchange for three years of probation, a suspended four-year prison sentence and registering as a sex offender. At the same time, Short has a separate pending case in St. Louis County Circuit Court after his 2-year-old nephew accidently short himself with Short’s service weapon. The child had found Short’s loaded and unsecured pistol in the ex-guard’s room. Short was charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child; he is scheduled to go to trail in September.

Nebraska: Douglas County DOC Supervisor Heather Robinson, 38, was arrested on June 15, 2026, on five felony counts of allowing unauthorized communication. WOWT in Omaha reported that the 12-year veteran, who ran the GED program for jail detainees, repeatedly provided some of them with her cellphone to place video calls, send messages and take social media photos. THC-laced syrup was also found in her desk, along with evidence of narcotics trafficking and notes detailing quid-pro-quo schemes—including one in which Robinson solicited foot rubs from detainees in exchange for phone privileges.

New Jersey: South Woods State Prison guard Kenneth Stinson, 39, was charged with third-degree money laundering and introduction of contraband on June 22, 2026, the New Jersey Monitor reported. He was suspended from his post in March 2025 after a year-long investigation uncovered a smuggling ring that included Stinson and five unincarcerated or formerly incarcerated co-conspirators. The DOC had earlier been accused of turning a “blind eye” to pervasive drug smuggling blamed for prisoner deaths at Northern State Prison and East Jersey State Prison, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, May 2025, p.43.]

New Jersey: The Office of Attorney General Jennifer Davenport (D) published state disciplinary records for the previous year on June 12, 2026, revealing punishment of three state DOC guards for the 2024 death of prisoner Kenneth Bulle, 74. Drawing from the 560-page document, Advance Local Media reported that housing tier guard Nicholas Morton was found guilty of abandoning standard security protocols that required every-half-hour checks with a 58-minute gap, during which Bulle’s cellmate strangled him with a T-shirt. Crucially, Morton also ignored prior requests from both men begging to be separated. Supervisors further compounded the fatal breakdown: Sgt. Terrance Benson skipped full security rounds, and Lt. Jonathan Carroll misreported the crime scene while delaying medical responders. Morton was subsequently fired, while Benson and Carroll received 15-day suspensions. Bulle’s cellmate and presumed murderer, Rondale Holloman, remains in the Burlington County Jail awaiting trial.

New York: BOP guard Leon Wilson, 51, was sentenced to 16 years and eight months in prison on June 30, 2026, for shooting a fleeing contraband smuggler the previous year, the New York Daily News reported. Wilson was on perimeter duty at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn in September 2023 when he commandeered a BOP van to chase a car smuggling cigarettes, marijuana, and phones, firing multiple rounds from the window and leaving one passenger with a bullet lodged in his back, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Dec. 2025, p.41.] Though Wilson had zero authority once he drove off BOP property, he testified that he followed procedures for a “jailbreak,” thinking that’s what he saw. Judge Pamela Chen of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York wasn’t buying that, however, noting that Wilson never reported any such escape attempt to his BOP superiors. When Wilson then apologized for causing the victim “inconvenience,” Chen retorted incredulously: “He shot the man in the back and nearly killed him.”

New York: The Riverhead News-Review reported that former Suffolk County Jail guard Jason Middleton, 37, pleaded guilty to Criminal Sexual Act in the Third Degree on June 26, 2026, admitting that he forced a prisoner to perform oral sex on him while on duty at the Riverhead Correctional Facility in 2023. As PLN reported, Middleton was accused of repeatedly luring the unnamed detainee into an area away from surveillance cameras between April and September 2023, coercing her there to have sex with threats to plant contraband in her cell if she did not comply. [See: PLN, Dec. 2024, p.62.] For his guilty plea, he now faces an 18-month jail term and mandatory sex offender registration at sentencing.

New York: On July 1, 2026, the Investigative Post reported that Erie County Sheriff John Garcia’s decision to hire former Monroe County jailer Michael Zamiara, 44, ignored evidence collected by investigators that Zamaria illegally accessed confidential medical and internal affairs files over 130 times between 2022 and 2024 while serving as a coordinator for Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter. Though criminal charges were recommended, Baxter refused to file them, allowing Zamiara to resign in May 2025. Just six months later, Garcia hired Zamaria as a part-time guard at the County lockup in Alden, exploiting state law that allows peace officers to regain certification even if lost for cause. State lawmakers are currently considering the “Wandering Officer Act” to make such decertification permanent, as it is for police officers.

Oklahoma: The Washington Times reported that a federal jury convicted former Garvin County Jail guard Paula Kelley on June 12, 2026, for willfully ignoring the medical distress of pretrial detainee Kayla Turley before fellow detainees took advantage of the situation to fatally assault her in August 2023. An autopsy listed the cause of death as organ failure due to hepatitis, but the manner of death was left undetermined.Prosecutors then established that Kelley, 57, observed Turley’s critical condition yet deliberately refused to provide aid or seek medical care, leading to indictments for her and four fellow guards in December 2024, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Feb. 2025, p.66.] Kelley now faces life in prison for the civil rights violation. The other four guards charged previously pleaded guilty, as did a jail nurse indicted on a similar charge.

Oklahoma: Former McCurtain County Jail supervisor Joseph Nelson Ebert, 35, faces up to 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty on July 7, 2026, to committing two felonies against detainees, The Oklahoman reported. Ebert testified that he was promoted to night shift supervisor because he was “the enforcer” who “knew what needed to be done with inmates”—i.e., using unjustified force. He confessed to striking detainee Roper Harris three times in the face in September 2021, arranging for another detainee then to give Harris a severe beating that Ebert euphemistically called “the royal treatment.” Ebert also admitted to repeatedly striking detainee Marion Allen Whitten Jr. in the face while he was strapped to a restraint chair in January 2022. See: United States v. Ebert, USDC (E.D. Okla.), Case No. 6:26-cr-00079 and 6:26-cr-00080.

Pennsylvania: Washington County Prison guard Curtis Gardner, 27, was jailed on June 23, 2026, following an investigation that found he used the Snapchat app to solicit sexually explicit photos and videos from a 16-year-old high school student, sending his own in return. According to KDKA in Pittsburgh, the victim turned him in when she recognized his official Washington County Corrections Officer uniform patch in one of the selfies. When interrogated, Gardner brazenly claimed that he distributes explicit images to app users who “rise to his criteria.” His felony charges include unlawful contact with a minor.

Pennsylvania: Former state DOC guard Kristina Miller, 36, was sentenced to 22 to 44 months in prison on July 10, 2026, WPXI in Pittsburgh reported.Investigators found that between 2020 and 2023, Miller engaged in sexual misconduct with multiple prisoners at the State Correctional Institution in Forest. She also weaponized the prison’s database to steal prisoner identities.State Attorney General Dave Sunday (R) announced the sentence following Miller’s guilty plea to institutional sexual assault and related charges. In addition to her prison term, Miller was ordered to pay nearly $4,000 in restitution and register as a sex offender for 15 years.

South Carolina: A state DOC corruption probe at Lee Correctional Institution exposed a sophisticated contraband ring for which a former guard, two prisoners and four civilian accomplices were arrested. After a federal grand jury in Columbia returned the nine-count indictment on June 30, 2026, The State reported, former guard Lowanda Atkinson, 52, pleaded guilty to accepting over $550,000 in bribes for using her position in the property room to smuggle cellphones, tobacco and marijuana to prisoners Larry Williamson and Jason Brown. They then sold the illicit goods to fellow prisoners, laundering proceeds through digital payment apps. Atkinson used her illegal kickbacks to purchase a luxury SUV, designer clothing and cosmetic surgeries. Both she and the prisoners now face up to 20 years in federal prison.

South Dakota: Former DOC guard Gretchen Erskine fled the state following accusations that she had sex with two prisoners at Mike Durfee State Prison in Springfield. A $10,000 cash arrest warrant was issued in late May, on which Erskine was then apprehended on July 11, 2026, and booked into the Mercer County Jail in Celina, Ohio, the Mitchell Daily Republic reported. The former guard was awaiting a date for an extradition hearing in Ohio.

Sri Lanka: Overcrowded conditions and internal drug rings sparked a deadly riot at Negombo Prison on July 5-6, 2026. Seven guards were among 26 people left dead, and over 100 others were injured, BBC News reported. The two days of extreme violence began when a prisoner ratted out a lucrative drug trafficking scheme operating inside the lockup. That sparked a conflict that escalated into a full-scale mutiny on July 6, as prisoners seized guards’ firearms, stormed the rooftops and rushed the prison gates to demand their release. A portion of the prison roof collapsed, injuring some of those involved. Sri Lankan prisons are currently packed to four times capacity; the last major riot occurred in 2020 in another prison where 11 people died.

Texas: On June 11, 2026, a Milam County grand jury indicted former County Jail guards Daniel Alfonso Cardoza and Shane Robert Moore, both 24, on first-degree felony charges of engaging in organized criminal activity. KCEN in Temple reported that a mid-April investigation was triggered by discovery of contraband THC vapes inside the lockup. Cardoza also faces a state jail felony charge for possession of a controlled substance. Sheriff Mike Clore immediately terminated both guards. A third accomplice, Martin Garcia Trevino Jr., was also indicted, but he was not an employee at the lockup, Clore said.

Texas: BOP prisoner Marcus Agee, 35, was sentenced to life plus 25 years in prison on May 29, 2026, for orchestrating an international fentanyl pipeline directly from his prison cell in Texas, The Sun Herald reported. Using a contraband burner cellphone, Agee exploited messaging applications, text messages and video calls to coordinate drug shipments from Mexican cartel traffickers to a stash house in Gulfport, Mississippi—all from his cell at FCI-Beaumont. Authorities ultimately seized over 2.5 kilograms of fentanyl linked to the operation. Agree’s new sentences for drug trafficking and witness tampering will be served concurrently with his original sentence of 103 months was for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Texas: Former Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) guards Kenneth McDaniel Jr., 34, and Kamron Kirk were arrested and booked into the Galveston County Jail on June 18, 2026, for sexually abusing two prisoners at a prison hospital in Galveston, KPRC in Houston reported. Both face second-degree felony charges for improper sexual activity with a person in custody. They were fired in March when an unnamed prisoner accused them of sexually assaulting her. A second unnamed victim then came forward to report that she was attacked in January. While TDCJ officials pointed to policies that the guards violated which ban male guards from being alone with female prisoners, the victims’ attorney, Dick DeGuerin, emphasized that prisoners are “not sentenced to be tortured and sexually abused.”

Texas: A Bowie County jury handed down a life sentence on June 11, 2026, to former Telford Unit prisoner Tre Lee Jackson, 32. Local news outlet TXK Today reported that Jackson received the life term alongside two 60-year sentences for leading an organized contraband ring that corrupted both convicts and guards. Jackson, a confirmed gang member already serving time for assault, used prison staff to flood the lockup with cell phones and drugs via CashApp bribes. Jackson, who is now at the Estelle Unit, was one of 10 prisoners and nine TDCJ guards named in a 19-count felony indictment returned by a Bowie County grand jury on June 5. The guards indicted were Jessica Nichole Ricks, Kimberly Renee Edwards, Mondraesha Quanee Davis, Joshua Demond David Johnson, Alexis Michelle Gregory, Catherine Rene Davis and Brittanee Wade. None of the guards has yet been convicted.

Texas: Former Harris County jailer Jaylin Sherman, 34, drew a light sentence on June 22, 2026, after he was convicted of intentionally causing bodily injury to detainee Tia Verrett, whom he struck multiple times with handcuffs during an August 2023 altercation at the lockup in Houston. According to KRIV in Houston, prosecutors presented damning surveillance footage and photographs of Verrett’s injuries. But County Judge Juanita Jackson sentenced Sherman to a meager 180 days in jail—and then immediately probated the term for 16 months. Consequently, Sherman avoided immediate incarceration altogether. While the conviction triggered a mandatory state law enforcement license suspension, Sherman remains free in the community under orders to complete court-ordered classes and not consume drugs or alcohol.

United Kingdom: BBC News reported that HMP Whitemoor guard Rebecca Green, 29, was sentenced to 16 months in prison on June 24, 2026, after pleading guilty to misconduct in a public office for carrying on a romantic relationship with prisoner John Otugade, a convicted murderer serving a minimum 25-year sentence. Suspicions arose in spring 2023, prompting Otugade’s transfer and an investigation, during which incriminating messages were found on Green’s phone, while her contact details on the prisoner’s call list said she was his “partner.”

West Virginia: Former BOP guard Elaina Marie Massey, 41, faced up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to bribery of a public official, but she was sentenced to just six months on June 29, 2026, followed by one year of supervised release for accepting bribes to smuggle contraband in FCI-Morgantown. WV News reported that Massey admitted to using her position to supply federal prisoners with cellphones, alcohol and tobacco in 2021, collecting over $22,000 in bribes.

West Virginia: On July 23, 2026, former Southern Regional Jail (SRJ) guard Nathaniel Pack, 29, pleaded guilty to using excessive force against detainees and prisoners seven times between April 2020 and March 2022. According to Metro News of Charleston, Pack would escort the incarcerated victims to an unmonitored interview room, a surveillance “blind spot,” where he and fellow guards brutally assaulted them. The violent retaliations targeted minor infractions, such as kicking cell doors, failing to follow commands, using slurs, or pushing past guards. To cover up the abuse, Pack admitted to filing false incident reports which explained away prisoner injuries. PLN has covered SRJ in its reporting for several years: A separate former guard named Michael Pack, 39, also pleaded guilty in March 2026 for his role in the same case, but he is a distinct person from Nathaniel Pack. [See: PLN, May 2026, p.62.] At his scheduled December 4, 2026, sentencing, Nathaniel Pack faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Southern Regional Jail has become nationally known because of extensive litigation and federal criminal prosecutions involving conditions and staff misconduct.  

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