Four Louisiana correctional officers have been sentenced following an attack of an inmate who was "handcuffed, shackled, and not resisting, and for conspiring to cover up their misconduct by devising a false cover story, submitting false reports documenting that cover story, tampering with witnesses, and lying under oath," the Department to Justice said in a statement.
The incident took place at the Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana.
The officers were sentenced last week, and Daniel David was sentenced to 110 months in prison; John Sanders was sentenced to 18 months; James Savoy Jr. was sentenced to 24 months; and Scott Kennedy received a 14-month sentence.
The DOJ said that Davis was the ringleader of the incident, and claimed that Davis yanked the inmate’s leg chains, causing the inmate to fall face-first onto the concrete breezeway. The DOJ said that Davis and the other officers then attacked the inmate, who suffered a dislocated shoulder, a hematoma, a collapsed lung, and broken ribs.
“Corrections officers are sworn to protect those within our prison systems,” said Brandon J. Fremin U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana. “Those officers who carry out vicious attacks such as this strip citizens of their basic civil rights and dishonor the work of honest law enforcement officers. The sentences handed down today serve as an example of officials being held accountable for violations of the public trust that was placed in them.”
The facility is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States, with 6,300 inmates housed in the institution.