Ex-Alabama prison officer gets 7 years behind bars for assaulting prisoners

A former prison officer in Alabama was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after assaulting handcuffed prisoners on two occasions, including with concentrated pepper spray, officials said.

Mohammad Jenkins, previously a lieutenant and shift commander at the William E. Donaldson correctional facility in Bessemer, Alabama, beat and discharged chemical spray on two men, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama.

"This defendant was a lieutenant with more than 20 years of experience and a supervisor who was supposed to set an example of what proper law enforcement looks like for the less experienced officers he oversaw," said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. "Instead, the defendant abused his position of power to repeatedly and viciously assault a restrained inmate, returning to the inmate’s cell several times to renew the assault.”

Alabama prisons have come under national scrutiny in recent years for violence against prisoners. Federal investigators in 2020 found "frequent uses of excessive force" in 12 of 13 state prisons under review, including the Donaldson facility where Jenkins was employed. Last week, a group of former and current prisoners sued Alabama for its prison labor system, calling it a "modern-day form of slavery," and alleging chronic mistreatment.

Jenkins, 52, was sentenced on Tuesday to 87 months in prison and three years of supervised release after he pleaded guilty in September, the Department of Justice said.

Officer assaulted two handcuffed people, prosecutors say

On Feb. 16, 2022, Jenkins handcuffed a man, identified only as V.R., after the man allegedly struck the officer once near the dining hall, court documents said. Jenkins then beat the 60-year-old man, who suffered bruises to his face, abrasions on his knees, and redness on the left side of his chest, according to prosecutors.

He also pepper-sprayed the man, hit him with the can and with a shoe, court filings said. No other officers were present during the assault, but the area was visible from a surveillance camera.

For about five minutes, Jenkins repeatedly entered the cell to assault V.R. multiple times, according to prosecutors. Jenkins omitted the assault from an incident report and falsely wrote he took V.R. to the shift office rather than the gym, where the beating took place.

Three months earlier, the officer assaulted another person. On Nov. 29, 2021, Jenkins sprayed a handcuffed prisoner in the face with Cell Buster, a concentrated pepper spray, court documents said. Jenkins also struck the man, only identified as D.H., with the spray can and hit him in the head, filings said.

"Corrections officers have the responsibility to ensure the safety and security of those incarcerated in our nation’s prisons," said U.S. Attorney Prim Escalona for the Northern District of Alabama. "The physical abuse of prisoners in violation of the Constitution threatens the safety of the entire institution, officers and inmates alike."