The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicted four Alabama corrections officers in connection to an incident where a prisoner was allegedly assaulted by prison guards.
The charges stem from a 2018 episode at Bibb Correctional Facility in Brent, Alabama, where Bibb employees Keith Finch, Jordan Thomas and Kevin Blaylock are alleged to have repeatedly kicked and beaten a prisoner who was curled up in the fetal position.
The prisoner had reportedly just run from his cell, and the allegations of criminality are a result of the use of force allegedly continuing after the prisoner was subdued and on the ground.
Finch, Thomas and Blaylock are charged with excessive force, while Thomas and his supervisor, Orlanda Walker, face charges that say the two filed false reports about the incident. Reports that said the force stopped once the prisoner was subdued.
The three individuals charged with excessive force face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, while the obstruction charges could lead to 20 years.
The technical name for the excessive force indictment is “deprivation of rights under color of law,” which is a civil rights charge.
The charges handed down Tuesday come after the DOJ released a report last week saying that the repeated use of excessive force in Alabama’s prisons violated the Eighth Amendment’s protections against cruel and unusual punishments.
The report was accepted by Governor Kay Ivey, who said she would continue to work to solve the issues in Alabama’s prisons, but met with some resistance by Attorney General Steve Marshall who called it “heavy-handed.”
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95
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